cliver

Literally a mineralogy term for splitting a mineral or rock cleanly along a natural plane (le mica se clive facilement). Since the late 20th century it's become common in political and media French in its figurative sense: to polarize or divide opinion sharply — hence the now-widespread adjective clivant.

• Le mica se clive facilement en fines lamelles. — Mica cleaves easily into thin sheets.
• Cette réforme a clivé l'opinion publique. — This reform sharply divided public opinion.
• Un sujet aussi clivant méritait un débat plus posé. — Such a divisive topic deserved a calmer debate.

Outside geology, cliver is almost always used for opinions or debates splitting people into opposing camps — for a general disagreement, diviser is the broader, more neutral choice.

• politics Clivant — Verified: French political journalist Didier Pourquery documented the word's rapid spread through political commentary in a 2012 column in Le Monde; cliver/clivant has since become a fixture of French political and media language for describing polarizing figures and issues.