ambivalence

Meanings

1. The coexistence of opposing attitudes or feelings (such as love and hate) towards a person, object or idea.
2. A state of uncertainty or indecisiveness.

Etymology

Borrowed from German Ambivalenz (“simultaneous conflicting feelings”), from Latin ambi- (“both”) and valentia (“strength”), from the verb valere (“to be strong”) (see valiant); spelled on the model of French-origin words ending in -ence. The German term was coined by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1910; by 1929, it had taken on a broader literary and general sense. Equivalent to ambi- + valence.