"Ambivalence"

When:

Lookups spiked on January 10, 2012.

Why:

Ambivalence – which refers to very different feelings (such as love and hate) about someone or something at the same time – was widely used to describe the Republican reaction to Mitt Romney's victories in New Hampshire and Iowa.

For example:

"Romney is marching toward the Republican presidential nomination despite doubts and ambivalence from much of the GOP's conservative base." – Adam C. Smith, Tampa Bay Times, January 9, 2012.

Ambivalence came from a German term that was coined by the new field of psychology in the early 1900s. It combines the Latin words ambi ("both") and valence ("strength").

Photo: Gage Skidmore / flickr