Draconian has long been one of my favorite words. Can you guess what it means?

A. Shaped like a dragon.
B. Quick witted, satirical.
C. Exceedingly harsh or severe.
D. Overly intellectual, obsessed with theories.
E. Mystical, not of this world.

Hint - the word draconian is derived from Draco, an Athenian politician of the 7th century BC.

Still not sure?

Draco’s great accomplishment was codifying the laws of Athens. N. S. Gill sums up Draco’s approach quite nicely in thisabout.com article -

The story goes that when asked about the harshness of his punishments, Draco said the death penalty was appropriate for stealing even so much as a cabbage. If there were a worse penalty than death, Draco would gladly have applied it to greater crimes. As a result of this strict, unforgiving code, the adjective based on the name Draco — draconian — refers to penalties considered excessively severe.

Whew! Brutal! No doubt cabbage crime waves were few and far between in ancient Athens. I guess by now you’ve figured out that draconian means C - exceedingly harsh or severe.

The word is most often used to describe legislative or corporate measures and policies.

In the cartoon above, the company is introducing the draconian measure of decimating one of its divisions. The word decimation also comes from ancient times. When a Roman legion screwed up, the penalty could be stiff. After a breakdown in discipline or a violation of military rules, Roman generals would sometimes order their legion to be decimated, or putting one out of every ten soldiers to death. A legion comprised around 6000 men, so decimation was decidedly draconian.

Question
Have you ever been subjected to draconian measures at work?