0 past simple and past participle of assert
1 to behave in a way that expresses your confidence, importance, or power and earns you respect from others:
Tough new policies are needed if the authorities are to assert control over a crime-ridden city.
The prime minister asserted that he had no intention of resigning.
He made a special appearance on television asserting that the allegations against him were false.
As such, we view a concept as a hierarchically positioned cognitive structure to which properties can be ascribed and in which membership can be asserted.
Moreover, a difference is asserted between lament and other forms of speech that ascribes significant power to the former.
I further hear this textual message of asserted difference and resilience echoed musically in the song's unconventional use of mode.