prostrate
See also: prostate
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈpɹɒstɹeɪt/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈpɹɑstɹeɪt/
- Hyphenation: pros‧trate
Etymology 1
[edit]From Middle English prostrat(e) (“prostrate”, also used as the past participle of prostraten), borrowed from Latin prōstrātus, perfect passive participle of prōsternō (“to prostrate”). Participial usage up until Early Modern English.
Adjective
[edit]prostrate (not comparable)
- Lying flat, face-down.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
- Prostrate fall / Before him reverent, and there confess / Humbly our faults.
- 1945, Sir Winston Churchill, VE Day speech from House of Commons:
- Finally almost the whole world was combined against the evil-doers, who are now prostrate before us.
- (figuratively) Emotionally devastated.
- Physically incapacitated from environmental exposure or debilitating disease.
- He was prostrate from the extreme heat.
- (botany) Trailing on the ground; procumbent.
- (obsolete) Prostrated.
Translations
[edit]lying flat, facedown
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physically incapacitated from environmental exposure or debilitating disease
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botany: trailing on the ground; procumbent — see procumbent
Etymology 2
[edit]From Middle English prostraten (“(reflexive) to prostrate; (with doun) to fall down in a state of humility or submission”), from prostrat(e) (“prostrate, prostrated”, also used as the past participle of prostraten) + -en (verb-forming suffix), from Latin prōstrātus, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.
Verb
[edit]prostrate (third-person singular simple present prostrates, present participle prostrating, simple past and past participle prostrated)
- (often reflexive) To lie flat or face-down.
- (also figurative) To throw oneself down in submission.
- 1922, Maneckji Nusserwanji Dhalla, Zoroastrian Civilization[1], page 228:
- Those who had the privilege of approaching him, had to prostrate themselves before him in profound humility […]
- To cause to lie down, to flatten.
- 1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XIV, page 175:
- How many of these mighty pines were to be prostrated under that approaching tempest!
- (figuratively) To overcome or overpower.
- 1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, →OCLC:
- Why this very minute she's prostrated with grief.
Usage notes
[edit]- Prostrate and prostate are often confused, in spelling if not in meaning.
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]to lie flat or face-down
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to throw oneself down in submission
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to cause to lie down
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See also
[edit]Anagrams
[edit]Italian
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]Verb
[edit]prostrate
- inflection of prostrare:
Etymology 2
[edit]Participle
[edit]prostrate f pl
Latin
[edit]Participle
[edit]prōstrāte
Categories:
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *sterh₃-
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English uncomparable adjectives
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with usage examples
- en:Botany
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English terms suffixed with -ate (verb)
- English verbs
- English reflexive verbs
- en:Body language
- en:Medical body positions
- Italian non-lemma forms
- Italian verb forms
- Italian past participle forms
- Latin non-lemma forms
- Latin participle forms