DCHP-2

gut-foundered gut foundered, gut-founded DCHP-2 (July 2016)

• adj. — Newfoundland

  to be in a state of extreme hunger.

  Type: 2. Preservation — The term gut-foundered describes a state of extreme hunger (see the 2006 quotation), or "the state of hunger at the end of the day" (see the first 2013 quotation). The term is a likely preservation from British English, attested in both EDD (s.v. "gut" (3)) and OED-3 (s.v. "gut-foundered" (a)). Note that OED-3 marks the term gut-foundered as "now dialectal", with the latest attestation from 1876 (see OED-3, s.v. "gut-foundered"(a)); this suggests the term lost currency in the UK in the late 19th century, which is supported by the present-day data in Chart 1. Gut-foundered appears in the Francis Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785) defined as "exceeding hungry" (s.v. "gutfoundered").
  In Newfoundland and Labrador English, however, the term has been preserved till today (see the 2013 and 2014 quotations). The term's present status as a linguistic stereotype is reflected by Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism's decision to publish a video explaining the term's meaning (see NL Tourism reference).
  See also DNE, s.v. "gut-foundered", with evidence from 1975 and c. 1982 (see the quotations).