non-assertiveadj.

1842 G. M. Heilner Gram. German Lang. iii. §135. 353 It will be seen that..the assertive verb always occupies the second place of its sentence, the non-assertive, the last.

1883 J. W. F. Rogers Gram. & Logic 19th Cent. ii. i. 92 In all Non-assertive sentences, as soon as the verb is applied to its subject, the sentence is formed, while all the words not belonging to the subject are complements.

1901 A. Sidgwick Use of Words viii. 224 Some statement of theirs is ambiguous, and therefore..non-assertive.

1940 Kenyon Rev. 2 282 The poetic statement..falls between the two poles of full assertion..and pure non-assertive tension between plurisigns.

1992 Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics 37 3 This usage is restricted to what Quirk et al...call ‘nonassertive contexts’, a category which includes not only negative and interrogative sentences, but also semi-negatives such as hardly and only.

1994 Oxf. Dict. Eng. Gram. 36 The predication of negative statements and questions is non-assertive territory..[which] also includes clauses expressing other kinds of tentativeness, such as condition.

1869 Utah Mag. 15 May 22/1 In the essential quality of their mental and physical organization, women are non-combatants and non-assertive; while man is combative.

1891 S. Crane in N.Y. Times 19 Oct. 31/2 He felt a quiet manhood, non-assertive, but of sturdy and strong blood.

1903 J. Ryce Oath in Heaven xiii. 218 A timid, non-assertive bird who was faring rather badly in the crowd.

1954 Child Devel. 25 63 (title) Family background of assertive and non-assertive children.

1983 Times 16 Nov. 23/5 (advt.) Qualified Nurse..Required As Companion... The successful candidate will be a..cheerful and non-assertive person, with a caring approach.

1987 D. Coulby & T. Booth Producing & reducing Disaffection (BNC) 140 A girl may simultaneously have to wear a masculine tie; show womanly ‘maturity’; conceal feminine allure; present a female non-assertive front in the classroom; and read male-oriented textbooks.

2004 J. Daly et al. Nursing Leadership iii. 48 Accommodators or friendly helpers are usually non-assertive, neglecting their own concerns in favour of those of others.

1932 Jrnl. Philos. 29 523 The symbols ‘p’ and ‘q’ are not expressions for propositions, but expressions for the names of propositions, the propositions being conceptually or non-assertively represented.

1985 Chicago Tribune (Nexis) 19 Feb. c4 I submit the following from one of our textbooks: ‘Many people act nonassertively under the mistaken notion that certain behavior defines politeness and consideration for others.’

1992 P. J. Duffley Eng. Infinitive (BNC) 104 When..need and dare are used non-assertively, it is possible for the speaker to feel that there is nothing real (no real need or daring) situated in time to constitute a before-position in relation to the event evoked by the infinitive, and so to use the bare infinitive after these verbs as with the modals.

1901 Med. Mirror Oct. 567/1 The answer is in the supineness and non-assertiveness of the medical profession. It walks in the wake of the clergy, like an almoner.

1911 Internat. Jrnl. Ethics 21 414 Lao-Tze's ideal of non-assertiveness does not mean inactivity, but the desire to allow things to develop naturally.

1992 Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics 37 4 The semantic note of nonassertiveness which has..been shown to hold for all the fully modal uses of dare is also characteristic of all of its occurrences in the blend construction.

2002 Jrnl. Travel Res. (Nexis) 40 Providers should practice self-control, coolness of manners, nonassertiveness, and humility.