Also, do some people really think that "ambivalent" means "indifferent"? Because if so, I am going to pushed over the edge into being one of those crazy people who rail against the unstoppable changes in the language.
STEP AWAY FROM THE LEDGE.
I think that it's one of those words that people don't use incorrectly as much as don't understand it when they come across it. It doesn't seem to get used all that often by people who don't know what it means, at least from my observation.
Not like "begging the question," which I'm convinced is understood by only a handful of people, but gets used all the time. Though I'll forgive Tom Waits for "the question begs the answer," even though it plays off the incorrect use of the term. But there isn't much for which I wouldn't forgive Tom Waits.
Also, I hate it when people correct me when I say "he hanged himself" or tell me that I mispronounce Nietzsche.