Latin for "easy to move," the word described bodies in motion for four centuries before software claimed it.
The English word agile entered the language in the late sixteenth century, borrowed from the French agile, itself from the Latin agilis, meaning "easily moved" or "nimble."1 The Latin root is agere, "to do" or "to drive," the same verb that produced agenda. For four centuries, the word described a physical quality of bodies in motion.
In February 2001, seventeen software developers gathered at The Lodge at Snowbird ski resort in Utah and produced a document they called the Manifesto for Agile Software Development.2 The manifesto's four core values prioritized individuals over processes, working software over documentation, customer collaboration over contracts, and responding to change over following a plan. The signatories included Kent Beck, Martin Fowler, and Ward Cunningham.
The choice of the word agile was deliberate. An earlier candidate was "lightweight," which the group rejected as dismissive.3 The Agile methodology that followed the manifesto spread from software teams to management consulting, education, and government. By the 2020s, "agile" had become one of the most frequently used adjectives in corporate job descriptions, applied to organizations, mindsets, and leadership styles that bore little resemblance to the Snowbird meeting.
The Latin root agere produced a cluster of English words for action, obligation, and movement. Agenda, agent, agitate, and agile all share it.