I ran across “The victim was found lying prone, her eyes gazing sightlessly at a full moon.”
Sorry, but this is a maneuver only the swivel-headed girl from The Exorcist could pull off, because when you’re prone, you’re lying on your stomach — looking at the ground.
If she really is looking at the moon, she’d be lying on her back — supine.
You may also want to explore “Prostate versus Prostrate” to compare it with prone.
Word Confusions…
…started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noir for you from either end.
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| Prone | Supine |
|---|---|
| Credit to: Apple Dictionary.com; Cambridge Dictionary: supine; Dictionary.com: prone, supine; Lexico.com: supine; YourDictionary: supine | |
Prone Firing Position by Lance Cpl. Samantha Schwoch, Marine Corps, is in the public domain courtesy of the Department of Defense. |
Supine Position by DarkWorkX is under the Pixabay License, via Pixabay. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Adjective; Adverb | Adjective; Noun
Plural for the noun: supines |
| Adjective: [Predic.; prone to, prone to do something] Likely to or liable to suffer from, do, or experience something, typically something regrettable or unwelcome Lying flat, especially face downward
Having a natural inclination or tendency to something
Having the front or ventral part downward
Adverb: |
Adjective: [Of a person] Lying face upward
Failing to act or protest as a result of moral weakness or indolence Mentally or morally inactive
Noun: [Grammar] A Latin verbal noun used only in the accusative and dative-ablative cases, especially to denote purpose [Grammar in English] The simple infinitive of a verb preceded by to An analogous form in some other language |
| Examples: | |
| Adjective: Years of logging had left the mountains prone to mudslides. He is prone to jump to conclusions. Assume a prone position. She’s always been an accident-prone child. “In the Open Hand Prone family (informally the ‘palm down’ family) the forearm is always in a prone position so that the palm of the hand faces either toward the ground or away from the speaker, depending upon how the elbow is bent” (Kendon). “The sales are looking prone since the last couple of months” (V&S Editorial Board). “The brachioradialis initiates forearm pronation, forearm supination, and flexion of the elbow at the mid-prone position” (Lung). Adverb: I was lying prone on a foam mattress. The third lay prone so that his face was not visible. |
Adjective: You should get into a supine position for this next exercise. For this next pose, your hand should be in a supine position. The motion of supination turns the palms anteriorly or superiorly to the supine (face-up) position” (Barclay). He lay supine in the face of racial injustice. The new director has introduced a series of changes against little opposition from the supine staff. But when it came to ‘policing‘ the franchises, the Arts Council proved utterly supine. Noun: Wonderful to relate. Dictu quam re facilius est provinciam rebellatricem confecisse. It is easier said (“in saying”) than done to subjugate completely a rebel province. Liber erat facilis lectu.
The book was easy to read. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adverb: pronely Noun: proneness Verb: pronate, pronation |
Adverb: supinely Noun: supination, supinator, supiness Verb: supinate |
| History of the Word: | |
| Late Middle English from the Latin pronus meaning leaning forward, from pro meaning forwards. |
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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan…which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them…and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions by exploring the index. You may also want to explore Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, and/or the Properly Punctuated.
Resources for Prone versus Supine
Adams, John Paul. “The Supine.” Wheelock’s Latin. California State University Northridge. 6 May 2015. Web. 16 December 2019. Ch 38. <http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/supine.html>.
Barclay, Tim. “Pronation/Supination.” Innerbody. 3 July 2018. Web. 16 December 2019. <https://www.innerbody.com/image/musc03.html>.
Gill, N.S. “Using the Latin Supine for Verbal Nouns.” Thought.co.com. 10 March 2019. Web. 16 December 2019. <https://www.thoughtco.com/latin-verbal-supine-121416>
Kendon, Adam. “Two gesture families of the open hand.” In Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. pp. 248-283. <https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/gesture/two-gesture-families-of-the-open-hand/C9BDAFEA757966C69DD41ACEA26FDBBA>
Lung, Brandon E. and Mike Bisogno. “Anatomy, Shoulder and Upper Limb, Forearm Brachioradialis Muscle.” National Center for Biotechnology Information. 10 February 2019. Web. 16 December 2019. <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK526110/>.
V&S Editorial Board. English – Concise Dictionary: English – English. New Dehli: V&S Publishers, 2014. p 512. <https://books.google.com/books?id=LdMoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA512&lpg=PA512&dq=%22The+sales+are+looking+prone+since+the+last+couple+of+months%22+V%26S&source=bl&ots=cySKq3KgFj&sig=ACfU3U0WkbwpsYRIqPwBeCwKylwx4OUkRA&hl=en&ppis=_c&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjWoeKVqLvmAhWJGs0KHS0zBWcQ6AEwAHoECAEQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22The%20sales%20are%20looking%20prone%20since%20the%20last%20couple%20of%20months%22%20V%26S&f=false>
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Supine and Prone by Asanagi is under the CC-BY 1.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. In Photoshop, the supine position was placed beneath the prone.
