GUTTED ADJECTIVE (YOUTH CULTURE)

In British slang: utterly exhausted or fed up, devastated, 'shattered'. Etymology: A figurative use of the adjective gutted, graphically describing the feeling of having lost all one's 'guts'. An earlier sense in underground slang (current in the nineteenth century) was 'penniless'. History and Usage: Although probably in spoken use for some time (it has been claimed that it is originally from prison slang), this sense of gutted did not start to appear in print until the mid eighties, when it suddenly became a favourite with journalists (especially the tabloid press). People interviewed after disappointments or scandals were often quoted as saying that they were gutted, although it was often difficult to be sure whether this was really the interviewee's word or the journalist's. Seb must be gutted. Pulling out of the 1500m...must have been an agonising decision. Sunday Mirror 4 Feb. 1990, p. 42 I've heard nothing for four months. I'm gutted because I still love him. Sun 6 Feb. 1991, p. 22