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ambivalence

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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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.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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ambivalence (countable and uncountable, plural ambivalences)

  1. The coexistence of opposing attitudes or feelings (such as love and hate) towards a person, object or idea.
    • 1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Prologue:
      "I dearly loved my master, son," she said.
      "You should have hated him," I said.
      "He gave me several sons," she said, "and because I loved my sons I learned to love their father though I hated him too."
      "I too have become acquainted with ambivalence, I said.
    • 2020 January 28, Mairov Zonszein, “Christian Zionist philo-Semitism is driving Trump’s Israel policy”, in The Washington Post‎[1], archived from the original on 30 January 2020:
      The great sociologist Zygmunt Bauman argued that philo-Semitism and anti-Semitism both fall under “allosemitism”: literally Othering the Jew. He defined it not as resentment of what is different, which is xenophobia, but rather of what defies order and clear categories. In 1997, he wrote, “The Jew is ambivalence incarnate. And ambivalence is ambivalence mostly because it cannot be contemplated without ambivalent feeling: it is simultaneously attractive and repelling.”
  2. A state of uncertainty or indecisiveness.

Usage notes

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This word is often used to express a lack of concern about the outcome of a choice to be made. In this case, a more appropriate word to use is indifference.

Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

French

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Etymology

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Borrowed from German Ambivalenz.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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ambivalence f (plural ambivalences)

  1. ambivalence
  2. ambiguity
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Further reading

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