Chuchaqui
A hangover — Ecuador's own word for it, borrowed from Quichua and used by absolutely everybody.
Related lesson: Ecuadorian Spanish: A Survival Guide.
Hear it in context
Amanecí con un chuchaqui espantoso.
I woke up with a horrendous hangover.
El mejor remedio para el chuchaqui es un encebollado bien caliente.
The best cure for a hangover is a good hot encebollado.
Ando chuchaqui, no me hagas hablar mucho.
I'm hungover — don't make me talk much.
What It Actually Means
El chuchaqui is the hangover: the headache, the thirst, the regret, and in Quito the extra cruelty of altitude, which makes the whole thing worse than it would be at sea level. It is a noun (tengo un chuchaqui terrible) and also an adjective (estoy chuchaqui, ando chuchaqui), and it has spawned chuchaquiento for the person suffering one and the verb phrase curarse el chuchaqui for doing something about it.
Where It Comes From
From Quichua, and that much is not in doubt — the shape of the word, the -qui ending and its total absence from every other national Spanish all point the same way. The precise source form is where the accounts diverge: it is usually explained as a Quichua expression for the ill-being that follows a drinking bout, and it is sometimes linked to the day-after aftermath of chicha, the fermented maize drink. The details are disputed enough that it is worth saying “from Quichua” and stopping there.
How Natives Use It
Universally and without shame. It is not slang in any narrow sense — it is simply the Ecuadorian word, used on the radio, in headlines and by people who would never say chumado. Around it sits a small culture: the encebollado at dawn, the caldo de salchicha, the agreement that nobody is answering messages before eleven.
Common Pitfall
It stops at the border. Spain says resaca, Mexico cruda, Colombia guayabo, Chile la caña — and none of them will recognise chuchaqui. The other trap is phonetic: it is chu-cha-qui, three syllables of nothing rude, but the first two coincide with a word that is genuinely vulgar across the Andes, so say the whole thing clearly and do not trail off halfway.