Argel
Grumpy, off, unpleasant — the Paraguayan verdict on the person nobody wants to sit next to today.
Related lesson: Paraguayan Spanish: A Survival Guide.
Hear it in context
Hoy amanecí argel, no me hablen.
I woke up in a foul mood today — nobody talk to me.
Qué argel ese vecino, nunca saluda.
What an unpleasant man that neighbour is — he never says hello.
No te pongas argel na, era un chiste nomás.
Don't get shirty — it was only a joke.
What It Actually Means
Argel is the word Paraguayans reach for when someone is being disagreeable: sour, snappish, unwelcoming, hard work. It splits neatly along the ser/estar line. Estar argel is today’s mood — you slept badly, the heat is unbearable, leave you alone. Ser argel is a diagnosis: this person is unpleasant by construction. Together with kaigue it covers most of what a Paraguayan will tell you about how they feel.
Where It Comes From
This one is Spanish, not Guaraní — worth saying, because in Paraguay the default assumption runs the other way. Standard dictionaries record argel as an old horse-coat term for an animal with only the right hind foot white, a marking long held to be unlucky, and from there the adjective picked up the sense “ill-omened”. The step from ill-omened to ill-tempered is the usual explanation and a plausible one, but it is not documented stage by stage, so hold it loosely. What it is not is the city: Spanish calls Algiers Argel too, and the coincidence has generated a great deal of confident nonsense.
How Natives Use It
Everyday, all registers below the formal, and about people far more than things. It survives across the border in the Guaraní-speaking north-east of Argentina, but it is Paraguay’s word. The most common form is exclamatory — ¡qué argel! — thrown at behaviour rather than at a person’s face.
Common Pitfall
It is blunt but not vulgar, which makes it easy to over-use. Calling a colleague argel where they can hear you is not swearing at them; it is telling the room they are difficult, which is worse. And do not stretch it to mean “angry” — that is enojado. Argel is the chill, not the storm.