a. [ad. L. assertōrius, f. assertor ASSERTOR: see -ORY.]
1. Of the nature of, or characterized by, assertion; assertive, affirmative.
1639. Rouse, Heav. Univ., v. (1702), 69. Having a commission that is Promulgatory and Assertory of what is past.
a. 1733. North, Exam., I. iii. ¶ 93. 188. The greatest Part of these assertory Transactions.
1810. Coleridge, Friend, VI. viii. (1867), 319. The mode … in Lord Bacon is dogmatic, i.e. assertory.
b. esp. in Assertory oath: one taken in support of a present statement, as distinguished from a promissory oath, which guarantees a future action.
1617. Collins, Def. Bp. Ely, II. x. 502. How many oaths are taken in Courts daily, both assertory and promissory.
1652. Marbury, Comm. Habak. (1868), 202. An oath … is assertory when we do call God to witness against our souls, if we affirm not the truth.
1823. Bentham, Not Paul, 258. By an oath every one understands at first mention an assertory, not a promissory declaration; by a vow, a promissory, not an assertory one.
2. in Logic. = ASSERTORIAL.
1837. Sir W. Hamilton, Metaph., xxiii. (1859), II. 70. The cognition, therefore, is assertory, inasmuch as the reality of that, its object, is given unconditionally as a fact. Ibid. (1838), Logic, xiv. (1866), I. 260. A proposition is called Assertory, when it enounces what is known as actual.
