I heard this term on an NPR game show, and had to look it up.
Lo and behold, I found the following definition online:

ara (a'-ra) [Gk. "a prayer for evil, a curse"]  Cursing or
    expressing detest towards a person or thing for the evils
    they bring, or for inherent evil.

>From "Silva Rhetoricae" (http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm)

Makes you wonder...


Doug

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Douglas MacDougall     Anime-based works available at my No Frills homepage:
dougmacd@thecia.net    http://www.crosswinds.net/boston/~dougmacd/works.html