nimble

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English nemel, later nymyl and nymbyll,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English nǣmel (“quick to grasp, quick at taking”),^{[4][5][2][6][7][8]} which is from Old English niman (“to take”), the source of nim, with an adjective suffix.^{[9][6][2][3][10]} It was probably reinforced by numol (“holding much, quick at grasping”), from the participial stem of the same verb;^{[2][11][5][8]} Hoad notes that the later form nymel may be either a sound development or an unrecorded Old English *nimol.^[3] The OED points out that the Old English evidence is very scanty and that the word became common only after its original sense had been obscured.^[9] That verb goes back to Proto-Germanic *nemaną, the source also of Old Saxon niman, Old High German neman (German nehmen), Old Norse nema, Old Frisian nima and Gothic 𐌽𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (niman, “to take”);^[2][4][12] outside Germanic it is related to Ancient Greek νέμω (némō, “to deal out, distribute”) and Latin numerus (“number”), from Proto-Indo-European *nem- (“to assign, allot; to take”).^{[2][4][11][5]} The b was added for ease of pronunciation, as in bramble and thimble, and is found from about 1500.^{[4][7][9][6][2]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Quick at grasping or learning, clever: Old English, first in the Harley Glossary,^[9] about 1000 according to Barnhart.^[2] Etymonline notes that nǣmel is recorded only once.^[4] The Middle English nemel, agile, appears before 1325, in the Cursor Mundi.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

Weekley observes that niman was replaced in English by take, although it survived until the 17th century, especially in slang, and that the original sense of the adjective was quick at grasping, whence alert and active.^[10] The old senses, quick to seize and quick to learn, died out by 1200 and 1440.^[9][6] From the Cursor Mundi on, nimble meant quick and light in movement,^[9][4] and it was applied from 1588 to a ship that was fast and easy to steer.^[9] The mind could be called nimble again from 1589, in Lyly, and a person quick-witted from 1604.^[9] Compounds such as nimble-footed (1590s), nimble-witted (1610s) and nimble-fingered (1620s) followed,^[4] and the 17th century had nimblechaps, a talkative fellow.^[4] From 1801, chiefly in American English, money that circulates quickly was called nimble, as in the nimble shilling.^[9][11]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Old English nǣmel, quick to grasp; clever.^[9][2]
• before 1325 – quick and light in movement, agile.^[2][9]
• c. 1500 – the form with b.^[4]
• 1519 – verb, to move nimbly.^[9]
• 1588 – of a ship, fast and easy to manoeuvre.^[9]
• 1589 – of the mind, quick to devise, clever.^[9]
• 1604 – of a person, quick-witted.^[9]
• 1801 – of money, circulating briskly.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Quick, light and easy in movement; agile: The goat picked its way up the rocks on nimble feet.^[11][8][9]
2. Quick and clever in thought or understanding; alert: a nimble mind.^[11][8][9]
3. Of money, circulating quickly.^[11][9]
4. (obsolete, Old English–1440) Quick at grasping or learning; wise.^[9][6]

Verb

1. (archaic) To move nimbly.^[11][6][9]

Word family

• nimbleness
• nimbly
• unnimble

Related words

• nim
• numb
• number
• nomad
• nemesis

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill