Meaning of the words gutted and gotted

[Joanna]

English Grammar Tests, Elementary Level

ESL/EFL Test #83 "Past Participle Sentences", question 5

If it wasn't for that medicine you gave me, I would have ......... a lot worse.

(a) gotten
(b) gone
(c) get
(d) gutted

English Grammar Tests, Elementary Level

ESL/EFL Test #83 "Past Participle Sentences", answer 5

If it wasn't for that medicine you gave me, I would have gotten a lot worse.

Correct answer: (a) gotten
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what is the meaning of the word "gutted"? what are the differences between "gotten"and "gutten"?

Joanna

[Caroline]

Dear learner,
Your question was:

[Alan]

Hi,

This word is used as a form of slang meaning hugely disappointed about what has happened to you.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Don't bank on it

[Yankee]

That usage may well be limited to the UK, Alan. 'Gutted' is not used that way at all in the US.
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[stew.t.]

Hi Yankee

What is the usage of "gutted" in the US Yankee?

Is it anything like; "Plane gutted at Japanese airport"?

As in the inside being totally destroyed. This was a recent headline in the Guardian newspaper.

Another example would be,

"We gutted our flat, because we wanted to do a total revamp of our home. It was beginning to fall apart".

Both the above meaning and the one Alan mentions are used in the UK.

cheers stew.t.
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Please meet Stewart Tunncilff

[Yankee]

Hi stew.t.

The American Heritage Dictionary (for example) is available online:

gut (verb)
1. To remove the intestines or entrails of; eviscerate. 2. To extract essential or major parts of: gut a manuscript. 3. To destroy the interior of: Fire gutted the house. 4. To reduce or destroy the effectiveness of: A stipulation added at the last minute gutted the ordinance.

All of these meanings for the verb 'to gut' are familiar to me. And 'gutted' is the past tense or past participle (which naturally can also be used as an adjective).

However, I'd never heard the slang usage for 'gutted' that Alan described until I read this thread. As I said, it may well be a usage limited to the UK.
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[stew.t.]

Hi Yankee

I am aware of the American Heritage Dictionary being online, thanks for the link though it will be very useful to other forum uses.

But I feel it is better to get a response from the nationality in question, don?t you?

I guess the quite colloquial usage that Alan referred to is pretty limited, even within the UK.

Some of my extended family, who still live in Derbyshire (where I was born), hardly ever use it. Although they do have enough phrases that are particular to that area;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/derby/content/articles/2005/08/19/voices05_derbyshire_dictionary_feature.shtml

I can see how the phrase "gutted" for being disappointed does have some sense, in that your guts (or stomach) is often affected when you have a feeling of being let down.
I have been known to use it, however that is more down to the fact I have lived in many places in the UK and have picked up, as well as lost, many phrases.

cheers stew.t.
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Please meet Stewart Tunncilff

[don geraldos]

The use of 'gutted' to convey that sinking feeling in one's stomach when disappointed is widespread now in the UK. It seems to have gone from slang to accepted when the Belfast Telegraph uses it in a headline. The opening sentence also explains the meaning quite well.

'"Irish feeling gutted after Dutch defeat"
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
By Graham Hamilton
It's not often an Irish team would be disappointed after holding the mighty Dutch to 1-0, ... .'

[Yankee]

.
Interesting usage.
To this American ear, the word "disappointed" seems far too mild as a possible synonym for something so drastic as "gutted".
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English