Nimble means moving quickly and lightly with easy skill. Nimble fingers, nimble on his feet, a nimble mind.
It praises lightness and precision together — nimble is quick without being hurried, which is why it suits fingers, footwork and thinking. In business writing a nimble organisation is one that can change direction fast. Note nimbly; and that the b in nimble is intrusive, added by scribes as it was in thimble and humble's cousin, exactly like the b in crumb.
1adjectivenimbleMoving quickly and lightly with easy skill.
“The pianist's nimble fingers raced up and down the keys.”
nimble is a quality of agility.
Also accepted in games: agile
Middle English nymyl comes from Old English numol, quick to grasp, from niman, to take. The b was added later by scribes, as in thimble and crumb.
Old English
nǣmel — receptive, quick to grasp
Middle English
nymyl
English, today
nimble
Built from
With intrusive -b-, Middle English nymyl, nemel, nemyll, nymell (“agile, quick, ready, able, capable”), a of Old English nǣmel (“receptive, quick to grasp”) and Old English numol (“able to take, capable of holding”), both from niman (“to take”) + -el, -ol, corresponding to nim + -le. Compare German nehmen, Gothic 𐌽𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽, Old Norse nema (“to take”). More at nim.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA