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prostrate

UK/ˈpɹɒstɹeɪt/US/ˈpɹɑstɹeɪt/
adjectiveC2Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,210 of 15,258leans written

Prostrate means lying face down, or completely overcome. Fall prostrate, prostrate with grief, prostrate themselves.

The posture is one of submission or worship, which is why the verb, to prostrate yourself, is about the meaning rather than the movement. It is a different word from prostate, the gland, and the two are confused constantly.

Definitions of prostrate

  1. 1adjectiveprostrateLying face down, or completely overcome.C2

    “Prostrate with grief, she could not leave her bed for days.”

prostrate is a position.

Remember it

PROSTrate → face down in the FROST

He is face down on the grass with the frost still on it.

hooks ontofrost

Where it comes from

Latin prosternere means to throw down in front, from pro-, before, plus sternere, to spread out.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *sterh₃-

  2. Latin

    prōstrātus

  3. English, today

    prostrate

Built from

  • prōsternō · Latin — to prostrate

From Middle English prostrat (“prostrate”), borrowed from Latin prōstrātus, perfect passive participle of prōsternō (“to prostrate”). Participial usage up until Early Modern English.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

prostrate in the wild

  • The thalli have two parts, a prostrate and upright section, and the filaments are variously branched.

    Chaetophorales

  • Euphorbia prostrata is a species of spurge known by the common name prostrate spurge or prostrate sandmat.

    Euphorbia prostrata

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.