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confidently aggressive or self-assured; positive: aggressive; dogmatic:
He is too assertive as a salesman.
having a distinctive or pronounced taste or aroma.
Contemporary Examples

It tells me we need more women, and men, to raise their girls the way my parents raised me: to be assertive, confident and proud.
Sheryl Sandberg’s Got a Bigger Problem Than Bossy-Gate Keli Goff March 16, 2014

He would recognize the angry, assertive tone of comments on web articles as the exact same tendency he identified in 1929.
The Smartest Book About Our Digital Age Was Published in 1929 Ted Gioia January 4, 2014

Its vague claims and assertive behavior are unnerving its Asian neighbors.
Meanwhile, in the Pacific… Noah Kristula-Green August 9, 2012

And, in all fairness to Lady Gaga, any singer who matches up with Tony Bennett needs to get loud and assertive.
Can Lady Gaga Do Jazz? Ted Gioia September 21, 2014

Instead they were becoming an assertive voice on the streets, and also online, for their rights.
Principal Murdered in Pakistan: Latest Assault on Girls’ Schooling Gordon Brown March 29, 2013

Historical Examples

Night was assertive in its heaviness, but communicative of its mysteries in its wild scents—the silent music of its hour.
The Rustler of Wind River G. W. Ogden

This assertive Briton has no desire to lose identity in “Brahm.”
Oswald Langdon Carson Jay Lee

There was in them something else, or more, than the assertive grossness of life.
The House of Pride Jack London

He was a slender fellow with close-clipped, assertive red hair.
The Arena Various

He represents the assertive, Jacksonian period of our national existence.
The American Spirit in Literature, Bliss Perry

adjective
confident and direct in claiming one’s rights or putting forward one’s views
given to making assertions or bold demands; dogmatic or aggressive
adj.

1560s, “declaratory, positive, full of assertion,” from assert + -ive. Meaning “insisting on one’s rights” is short for self-assertive (1865).