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).
雙語例句
1. There has been an overall growth in population, despite some draconian efforts to contain it.
盡管有嚴厲的遏制措施,人口還是在全面增長.
來自《簡明英漢詞典》
2. In U.S. S . R collectivization was imposed 1930 by draconian Methods: Which met bitter peasants'resistance.
1930年蘇聯(lián)采取嚴厲的辦法推行 集體化 時遭到農民的強烈抵制.
來自辭典例句
3. Let us keep at our efforts to abolish the draconian ISA.
讓我們繼續(xù)斗爭以廢除殘酷的內安法令.
來自互聯(lián)網
4. But Superfund's draconian liability rules offend any common - sense notion of justice.
但超巨額基金所規(guī)定的嚴厲措施是同盡人皆知的公正觀念相違背的.
來自互聯(lián)網
5. The government has introduced a draconian regulation intended to gag the press.