The term draconian, as in draconian measures, is a reference to the 7th century B.C. Athenian judicial figure Draco, who established the first written laws in Athens. They were very severe, including the death penalty for stealing apples and slavery for those who did not pay their bills.
The first time the word appears in English is in 1680, in a description of the biblical Book of Revelation by the English theologian Henry More with the imposing title of Apocalypsis Apocalypseos, wherein he writes about “this draconical power”. Draco was well-known enough to be referenced in Peter Motteux’s 1708 completion of Sir Thomas Urquhart’s translation from 16th century French of The Life of Gargantua and Pantagruel, by François Rabelais. Peter Motteux was born in France and came to England with the wave of Protestant refugees to the British Isles at the end of the 1600s. In rendering the French Renaissance writer’s rollicking satirical novel into English, Motteux describes laws as being “rigorous and draconic”.
It was only in the late 1800s that the word appeared in its present form – draconian.
