strata: [16] Latin strātum meant ‘something laid down’. It was a noun use of the neuter past participle of sternere ‘spread out, lay down, stretch out’, which also produced English consternation [17] and prostrate [14]. Its use for the abstract concept of a ‘layer’ (in English more usually in the plural strata) is a modern Latin development. Other English words from the same source include stratify [17], stratosphere [20] (the ‘layer’ of the atmosphere above the troposphere), stratus [19] (cloud in thin ‘layer’- like form), and street. => consternation, prostrate, straw, street
