draconian: [18] Draconian ‘excessively harsh’ is a monument to the severe code of laws drawn up in 621 BC by the Athenian statesman Draco. Its purpose was to banish inequities in the system which were leading at the time to rumblings and threats of rebellion among the common people, and to an extent it succeeded, but all it is now remembered for is its almost pathological harshness: the most trivial infraction was punished with death. When taxed with his laws’ severity, Draco is said to have replied ‘Small crimes deserve death, and for great crimes I know of no penalty severer’.
draconian (adj.)
1876 (earlier Draconic, implied from 1640s), from Draco, Greek statesman who laid down a code of laws for Athens 621 B.C.E. that mandated death as punishment for minor crimes. His name seems to mean literally "sharp-sighted" (see dragon).
例文
1. There has been an overall growth in population,despite some draconian efforts to contain it.
厳しい抑制措置があるにもかかわらず、人口は全面的に増加している。
2.In U.S.R collectivization was imposed 1930 by draconian Methods:Which met bitter peasants 'resistance.1930年にソ連が厳しい方法で集団化を推進したとき、農民に強く抵抗された。
3.Let us keep at our efforts to abolish the draconian ISA.
残酷な内安全法令を廃止するために闘争を続けましょう。
4.But Superfund 's draconian liability rules offend any common-sense notion of justice.
しかし、超巨額基金が規定する厳しい措置は誰もが知っている公正観念に反するものだ。
5.The government has introduced a draconian regulation intended to gag the press.