This week it was reported that several countries’ closures of pubs and restaurants, along with other “social distancing” measures intended to slow the rate of coronavirus infection, constituted “draconian” measures, a common phrase for strict or severe actions. As it happens, though, the man who inspired the word would laugh at thinking such developments worth his name.
In the earlier form, “draconic”, the word first appears in English in Peter Anthony Motteux’s 1708 translation of the works of Rabelais. (In the Frenchman’s satire Pantagruel, corrupt lawyers are said to be such villains that there could not be “any law so rigorous and draconic that could punish ’em as they deserve”.) This adjective is an eponym, named for the famously harsh lawgiver Draco of Athens in the 7th century BC. Under his rather inflexible legal system, death was the punishment for every crime, including stealing a cabbage or loitering.
Hence draconic – and later draconian (from 1876) – measures are, strictly speaking, those that are excessively, even ridiculously harsh. In that sense the Covid-19 outbreak has not yet inspired many authentically draconian measures, although it is early days yet.
• Steven Poole’s A Word for Every Day of the Year is published by Quercus.
