Persuasive means good at making people agree with you. A persuasive argument, persuasive evidence, find it persuasive.
It describes the argument as often as the person, and it says nothing about whether the argument is right — a persuasive case can be wrong, which is why the word is not quite praise. Persuade and dissuade are the pair.
1adjectivepersuasiveGood at making people agree with you.
“She made such a persuasive case that the whole committee voted with her.”
persuasive is a quality.
Latin persuasivus comes from persuadere, to persuade — per, thoroughly, plus suadere, to advise or urge.
Proto-Indo-European
*sweh₂d-
Medieval Latin
persuāsīvus
Middle French
persuasif
English, today
persuasive
From Middle French persuasif, from Medieval Latin persuāsīvus, from Latin - past participle stem of persuadeo + -īvus.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA