15. A verb is active in French when it expresses that an agent called nominative, or subject, performs an action on an object, or regimen, without the help of a preposition---as, Jean frappe Joseph, John strikes Joseph, &c.
1831, A. Bolmar, “A Book of the French Verbs, Wherein the Model Verbs, and Several of the Most Difficult Are Conjugated Affirmatively, Negatively, Interrogatively, an Negatively and Interrogatively.”, in A Book of the French Verbs, Wherein the Model Verbs, and Several of the Most Difficult Are Conjugated Affirmatively, Negatively, Interrogatively, an Negatively and Interrogatively. A New Edition, Philadelphia, published 1854, page 2