Going below to build up

The term “infrastructure” took on a central role in this year’s State of the Nation address by president Jacob Zuma at the official opening of parliament. Looking at the roots of the word reveals that the renewed prominence of the term might be a lot more appropriate at this juncture of the country’s development than is appreciated at first glance. It is really about getting back to basics.

The first component of the term, infra, comes from the Latin prefix which means “below” or “underlying”. The second part comes from another Latin word, structūra, meaning to build or put together. Thus: underlying what you build or put together to create a structure (also from the Latin word structus).

Although, according to some sources, the first use of the word dates back to the 1500s, it came to prominence in the English language in the late 1920s as a loan word from French.

In French, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, it had been a railroad engineering term. A 1927 edition of the Oxford Dictionary indeed mentions the word in the context of “… the tunnels, bridges, culverts, and ‘infrastructure work’ of the French railroads.

The particular article states that after World War II, “infrastructure” re-emerged as in-house jargon of NATO but this time referring to fixed installations necessary for the operations of armed forces and to capital investments considered necessary to secure the security of Europe.

However, the present use of the term in South Africa probably has more in common with some of the history of the word in America.

The military use of the term is said to have achieved currency in the United States after  NATO's formation in the 1940s and was subsequently adopted by urban planners in its modern civilian sense by 1970.

But according to the Online Etymology Dictionary the term “came to real prominence in the United States in the 1980s following the publication of America in Ruins, which initiated a public-policy discussion of the nation’s 'infrastructure crisis', purported to be caused by decades of inadequate investment and poor maintenance of public works. This crisis discussion has contributed to the increase in infrastructure asset management and maintenance planning in the US.”

Now, doesn’t that have a familiar ring to it with the present situation and public discourse about “infrastructure decline” in South Africa?

A summit to top it off

And, the term is set to grow in prominence with president Zuma also committing himself in his address to convening a Presidential Infrastructure Summit to discuss the implementation of the plan with potential investors and social partners.

In this context, “summit”, itself, is an interesting word and an example of how the meaning of words in the physical world often crossover to the figurative.

The modern term “summit”, also first in use during the 1500s, came to us via Middle English as somete, from the Anglo-French sumet, which is the diminutive of sum, meaning “top”. It is also originally from the Latin word summum, meaning “the highest point”. Over time, it would also take on the figurative meaning of “to the utmost / highest degree”.

Exactly how, where and when it happened, we could not ascertain. But at some point, “summit” also became used to describe a meeting at the highest level of diplomatic or other governmental / industry officials – a meeting at the summit of power, that, of cause, can also be on the summit.