Someone who shows ambivalence about a person or thing has conflicting feelings. If you love your mom but find her totally embarrassing you might feel ambivalent about having her give a presentation at your school.
Originally a psychological term, ambivalence was borrowed from the German word Ambivalenz, coined in 1910 by the Swiss psychologist Eugen Bleuler. The German word was formed from the Latin prefix ambi- "in two ways" plus Latin valentia "vigor, strength."
