Once upon a time, say the eighth century B.C.E., a group of powerful Athenians controlled land, politics, and money, which also means that the law favored them over most other Athenians who lived in poverty. This is already beginning to sound like Cinderella.
At any rate, things got so bad for the poor by year 621 B.C.E. that they approached an Athenian legislator named Draco, who responded by creating a written code of law. The problem was, however, his code got so out of hand that even the most minor offenses were punishable by death, and failure to pay one's debts would result in slavery. Ironically, the code led to even greater power of the aristocracy over the poor. Although the laws were eventually changed, today any measures that have severe, unrealistic results in which the punishment does not fit the crime might be called draconian, thanks to the Athenian Draco.
Definition
Draconian/draconian (lower case as well): an adjective meaning unusually cruel or severe; rigorous
Origin
Draconian: Greek, drakon; Latin, dracon--stem of draco: a kind of serpent, the sharp sighted one.
It's interesting to note that the root of Draco and Draconian is also the root of dragon. Here's a superb example of a metaphor turned hyperbole as you will see in the examples.
First recorded use: 1810-1820
From Metaphor to Hyperbole
The use of figurative language in our everyday speech adds color and vitality to whatever we want to communicate, whether it's telling a joke or writing a serious essay. Power word #10, draconian, offers hyperbole, that is, a word used in exaggeration. If you refer to something as draconian, your intention might be to exaggerate the number of times the coach made you run around the track, even though her request wasn't really out of the ordinary in terms of team practice and even your good health. Somehow, exaggeration seems to make us feel better, and we can even laugh about the cleverness of it. And you really do like your coach. She's not the dragon type.
Animation, especially a number of Disney characters, boasts some of the most dramatic and memorable examples of draconian behavior. No one likes Cinderella's cruel and heartless stepmother who turns the lovely image of sweetness, Ella, into a kitchen wench full of ashes with no hope of meeting the prince. What a dragon!
Then there's Cruella Deville and the wicked witch who gives Snow White the poisoned apple, and Rapunzel's wicked stepmother who imprisons her in a tower--the endless list of draconian women in fairy tales old and new. Have you ever wondered why they're mainly women?
Examples:
1. Ella pulled on the door knob, and realizing her dreams of meeting the prince drift away behind a door shut tight by her draconian stepmother, she allowed the tears to fall.
2. The guidelines for taking lunch breaks, instituted by the new manager of the store's shoe department, seemed draconian to the clerks who had been abusing the system for years.
3. As Billy looked at the list of homework assignments in his planner juxtaposed with his athletic schedule, he began to doodle caricatures of his draconian task masters.
While the word draconian has evolved into the metaphor-hyperbole state and our exaggerations are somewhat harmless, we know that we live in a world in which the soft underbelly of the dragon cannot atone for the fiery breath that sears the soul and scourges the lives of those who in reality struggle to survive as well as all of us who long for justice.
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