Arrarray
"Ouch, hot!" — the Quichua interjection for heat and burns, and the mirror image of achachay.
Related lesson: Ecuadorian Spanish: A Survival Guide.
Hear it in context
¡Arrarray! La olla estaba hirviendo y la cogí sin nada.
Ouch, hot! The pot was boiling and I grabbed it with nothing on my hands.
Sopla la sopita, guagua, que está arrarray.
Blow on your soup, love, it's hot.
Arrarray, este sol de Guayaquil me está achicharrando.
Ugh, this Guayaquil sun is roasting me.
What It Actually Means
Arrarray is what an Ecuadorian says on touching something hot: a pan handle, a plate straight off the stove, a cup of agua aromática taken too fast. Extended a little, it covers oppressive heat in general — the coastal midday sun earns one — but its home is the sudden, small burn. Spelling wobbles between arrarray, arrarrai and arraray; nobody minds.
Where It Comes From
From Quichua (Kichwa), like its twin achachay, and borrowed whole into Ecuadorian Spanish without translation. The pair belongs to a small closed set of body-sensation interjections that Spanish took from Quichua and never found a reason to replace: achachay (cold), arrarray (heat), ayayay (pain), atatay (disgust), añañay (delight). Spanish had perfectly good words for all five states; what it lacked was a single syllable-cluster you can produce before you have finished thinking.
How Natives Use It
As a shout, mostly, and in the kitchen. It also works attributively when talking to children — no toques, está arrarray — which is how most Ecuadorians first learn it. It is highland-flavoured but understood nationwide, and it survives comfortably in the mouths of people who speak no Quichua at all and would be surprised to be told the word is not Spanish.
Common Pitfall
Keep it apart from ayayay, which is pain of any kind — a stubbed toe, a bad back, bad news. Arrarray is specifically about heat. Mixing up the family is the standard foreigner’s slip, and the standard Ecuadorian response is to teach you all five on the spot.