Good explanation. In Texas, though, assault could be verbal as well as a physical effort.
California, it depended on who to whom.
Welfare momma screaming out her open door “if you tell him anything, I’ll kill you, you F’n B*,” when Mrs. AR was telling a cop that she saw her ‘man’ hit three cars, including mine, after bouncing off a dumpster, then run inside; and was telling the cop which apartment to visit: not assault nor a ‘threat’.
Me, to next door neighbor teens that entered (uninvited, after removing a board in the back fence) a friend’s house while we were there having dinner; they refused her repeated orders to leave; grabbed our meals off the table, to which I responded (asked to by our hostess) with “get out before I THROW your worthless punk @5535 out!” That WAS “verbal assault”, though the cops (called by their parents after they arrived back home) ‘only’ gave me a warning.