Picture a body flat on the ground, face down, arms and legs stretched out. The picture says nothing about why. The person may have gone down on purpose, in front of something they honour. Something may have knocked them down. Or they may simply have had nothing left to hold them up. Every use of this word puts a different cause behind the same flat body — and when a plant lies along the soil instead of standing, the word lends it the same picture.
From the word’s history
From Middle English prostrat(e), borrowed from Latin prōstrātus, the perfect passive participle of prōsternō ('to prostrate'). In earlier English the same form served as both adjective and past participle, which is why the adjective and the verb look identical today.
來自中古英文 prostrat(e)，借自拉丁文 prōstrātus——動詞 prōsternō（使俯伏）的過去分詞。早期英文裡同一個形式既當形容詞也當過去分詞用，所以今天形容詞和動詞才會長得一模一樣。動詞 prostraten 也是在中古英文時期由這個形式加上 -en 造出來的。
Wiktionary, "prostrate" (etymology 1)
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