draconic

English

Etymology 1

From Latin draco (“dragon”) +‎ -ic.

Adjective

draconic (comparative more draconic, superlative most draconic)

1. Relating to or suggestive of dragons.
   • 1908, E. Walter Maunder, chapter V, in The Astronomy of the Bible‎^[1], New York: Mitchell Kennerley, page 196:

     There are amongst the constellations four great draconic or serpent-like forms.

See also

• draconic month
• dragonish

Etymology 2

From the Athenian lawmaker Draco, known for making harsh laws.

Adjective

draconic (comparative more draconic, superlative most draconic)

1. (rare, dated) Very severe or strict; draconian.
   • 1818, Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage‎^[2], Canto 3, Stanza 64:

     […] they no land / Doomed to bewail the blasphemy of laws / Making kings' rights divine, by some Draconic clause.

   • 1932, Edvard Westermarck, chapter VIII, in Ethical Relativity‎^[3], London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co, page 248:

     The sexual instinct can hardly be changed by prescriptions; I doubt whether all laws against homosexual intercourse, even the most draconic, have ever been able to extinguish the peculiar desire of anybody born with homosexual tendencies.

   • 1974, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by Thomas P. Whitney, The Gulag Archipelago, Harper & Row, published 1973, Vol. 2, Part III, pp. 9-10:

     In the first months after the October Revolution Lenin was already demanding "the most decisive, draconic measures to tighten up discipline."

Usage notes

• Superseded by draconian.

Anagrams

• accordin', in accord, cancroid, Radoncic

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from German drakonisch.

Adjective

draconic m or n (feminine singular draconică, masculine plural draconici, feminine and neuter plural draconice)

1. draconian

Declension

Declension of draconic

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	draconic		draconică	draconici	draconice
	definite	draconicul		draconica	draconicii	draconicele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	draconic		draconice	draconici	draconice
	definite	draconicului		draconicei	draconicilor	draconicelor