Other notable Greek lawgivers include his contemporary Solon of Athens and the semi-legendary Lycurgus of Sparta, the man supposedly responsible for establishing the famously militaristic Spartan social system. He was what is sometimes referred to as a ‘lawgiver’, that is, someone who is responsible for establishing substantial civic laws or reforms. Sooo there is that.Īnyway, Draco hailed from the city-state of Athens, the birthplace of democracy. Unfortunately for everyone, ‘draconian’ has less to do with dragons and more to do with an Ancient Greek individual by the name of Draco.
Now I’m sure that there are more than a few of you who thought the word must be somehow related to dragons. What does ‘draconian’ actually mean? Well, the Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘draconian’ as ‘laws themselves or their application being excessively harsh or severe.’
#Draconian means series
The purpose of this series is to highlight some of the more interesting instances where an event, cultural practice or person has entered the vocabulary of the modern English speaker.įirst thing’s first. Language is a funny thing and no language is as funny, weird or baffling as English. Perhaps more than any other tongue, English has been influenced by almost every culture and language it has come into contact with.
#Draconian means driver
Alain Prost has expressed considerable concern that FISA's strict new rules on driver discipline might result in ostensibly innocent racing manoeuvres attracting draconian penalties during the 1991 world championship season.*** You can watch the animated video version of this article here.In February 1990, by which time he had moved to become manager of West Ham, Macari became embroiled in financial scandals dating back to his years at Swindon and eventually ended in the newly promoted club being relegated from the First Division to the Third, a draconian punishment which was partially decreased on appeal.Totally to oust the court's supervisory jurisdiction in a field where ex hypothesi the citizen can have no right to be consulted is a draconian and dangerous step indeed.Here, too, of course, a misplaced word could result in a denunciation and draconian "punishment", but plainly the massive growth in the number of critics of the Party made possible a wide range of devastating comment.The public was bewildered as to what Blake had done to deserve such a draconian sentence.The argument of all crackdown law is that it applies special, draconian measures to tackle some heinous crime.The draconian 42-year sentence had been negated.A draconian set of "emergency war laws" is being drawn up.In the past week, it happens, we have heard intelligent and well-meaning whites talking in apocalyptic terms about the problem of the black underclass - that it can only be solved by draconian measures of enshrining abortion or taking children away from mothers.In this phase, too, the ideological obsessions, the immorality and criminality of the regime, and - as Germany came under pressure for the first time - the draconian repression of the police state, were becoming more and more evident, and could increasingly be recognized by the ordinary civilian population.Even in 1930, when the most draconian workhouse rules had been eased, another London survey of aged applicants for relief found that half had no family at all.
#Draconian means plus
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