Prostate - prostrate

Do not confuse prostate with prostrate.

• The prostate (with no '-r-‘ in the second syllable) is a gland found only in males. It is involved in the production of semen. The prostate gland can cause health problems in older men particularly. Cancer of the prostate is a common cause of death in men. There is NO verb 'to prostate'.
• Prostrate may be an adjective or a verb. If you are literally prostrate, you are lying down, properly face downwards, originally to worship or to pay respects. This is the meaning of the verb 'to prostrate (often 'oneself'): "St Francis of Assisi used to prostrate himeself before the altar of the church". The word prostrate has weakened, along with the participial adjective prostrated. It is not always used to describe, for example, the attitude of Muslims in prayer at the mosque. It is now often used hyperbolically by people who feel tired, or deeply affected by their emotions: "I was prostrated with exhaustion" sometimes means no more than "I wanted to sit down before I made a cup of tea."

It is possible to confuse prostate with prostrate by a simple typing error. This may be forgivable (it is still wrong). It is not forgivable, in academic writing, to confuse them by malapropism. Don't do this. You will only make your readers laugh. Unkindly. It can be kindly meant, as a form of pun, when a young relative says of an older one that "he is prostrate with his prostate" - in other words, that he is in bed with an illness of his glands.