Kaigue
Listless, flat, wilted — the Paraguayan word for having no energy for anything, including explaining why.
Related lesson: Paraguayan Spanish: A Survival Guide.
Hear it in context
Estoy kaigue, no tengo ganas de nada.
I've got no energy — I don't feel like doing anything.
Le veo kaigue a tu perro, ¿está bien?
Your dog looks droopy — is he all right?
Después del almuerzo todos quedan kaigue.
After lunch everyone goes flat.
What It Actually Means
Kaigue is Guaraní for wilted, drooping, drained — and in Paraguayan Spanish it is the standard description of a person with the batteries out. Not ill, not sad, not lazy: simply without impulse. A plant that has gone limp in the sun is kaigue, and so is the office at three in the afternoon in February. Along with argel it is one of the two words you will actually hear when you ask a Paraguayan how they are.
Where It Comes From
Straight Guaraní, borrowed into Spanish without translation or adjustment. The literal sense — wilted, faded, gone slack — is the one still visible when the word is used of plants, and the human sense is the same image applied to people, which is exactly the metaphor English reaches for with “drooping” and “flat”.
How Natives Use It
With estar and quedar, never with ser: being kaigue is a state, and one that lunch, heat or a long week can cause. It stacks into the register naturally — estoy kaigue nomás, nde kaigue (“you lazybones”, teasing) — and it is entirely neutral in company. Announcing that you are kaigue at work is a normal thing to say to a normal colleague.
Common Pitfall
Do not translate it as “lazy”. Guaraní has a separate word for that — ate’ỹ, laziness as a trait — and calling someone kaigue passes no moral judgement at all; it says their energy has gone, not their character. It is equally not a way of saying you are ill: if you feel unwell you are enfermo, and reaching for kaigue instead will get you sympathy for the wrong thing.