Breaktime - Yoofspeak

13th May 2011, 1:00am

Devo’d (adj)

Means: Upset

Usage: “Bethan was completely devo’d when her Facebook account got hacked.”

Whingeing and moaning is most fun when it is self-dramatising, but even better when it is usefully cut down to two little syllables (sometimes the final “d” is also dropped). Nothing to do with 1970s nerd-rock band Devo, or this year’s New York RB star DeVo D, this abbreviation of devastated is now the Yoofs’ standard complaint when, in their own words, “something crap happens”. The depth of emotion involved ranges from (very rarely) prostrate with grief: “Jez dumped me by txt. Again. Devo’d” to (very commonly) ever so slightly inconvenienced; “Devo’d that I’ve got another hour to do on this project work.”

It looks and sounds girly, but boys have been known to use the term in place of the more robust “gutted”, especially when talking sport. “They lost 1-6 again, they were devo’d.” Real girlies sometimes prefer the alternative “devs”.