An offensive is a military attack.
An offensive is an action that offends or may offend (hurt someone's dignity or self-esteem). The term emanates from the Latin verb offendere , which is made up of two clearly differentiated parts: the prefix ob -, which is equivalent to "confrontation" , and the term fendere , which can be translated as "hit" .
For example: “Please remove that banner that may be offensive to certain people,” “This author's latest book is offensive to Mexicans,” “His words were offensive to those in attendance, who did not hesitate to express their rejection.” .
Another use of the concept allows us to point out the one or thing that attacks or that serves to attack (attack, harm, act to harm): “The American offensive caused the death of twenty civilians in Baghdad,” “The opposition launched a strong offensive against the government for energy policy” , “The best thing about this team is its offense: it has scored six goals in two games” .
military offensive
The notion, according to this last definition, has its most common uses in the military field and in sports . A military offensive is an attack or aggression carried out by the army . Throughout history, an offensive was usually considered to be an advance by a military force for the purposes of territorial conquest or a response to a previous attack. However, in recent decades, some States proclaimed the theory of preemptive strike and began to carry out military offensives under the pretext of avoiding a hypothetical attack.
Precisely within the military field, and taking into account the established meaning, we would have to point out that there is what is known as "taking the offensive" . It is a verbal locution that attempts to make it clear that a specific person or group is preparing with the clear objective of being able to attack the rival and thus defeat him.
In sports, an offense is an action carried out to score points or score.
The notion in sport and politics
In sports, offense is the action or tactic that a player or team develops to score or add points . In football and basketball , for example, the offense takes place directly in the opponent's field, while in tennis or volleyball , the offense is linked to taking the initiative to score.
In the same way, within the field of politics the term offensive that we are analyzing is also used. Thus, for example, in Spain it is usually used to define the actions of opposition groups with respect to the measures and decisions carried out by the party that is in government.
A clear example of this is that, years ago, the United Left offensive against the tax reform promoted by the PP became a protagonist in the media. Specifically, it consists of proposing a series of strict measures that can confront both what would be illegitimate debt and all those companies that, despite having a significant number of benefits, intend to fire workers. .