‘I’ll stick to being Brazilian,’ said my husband. It was a family joke. Every time a politician on the radio says resilient, the first to shout out Brazilian wins. I haven’t yet discovered what the prize is, though we have been playing the game since 2014, when I wrote about resilience here.
My husband may be resilient, even robust (another political watchword), but the newest favourite is nimble, and I don’t think he’s up to that. Ursula von der Leyen called Britain ‘a nimble speedboat’ in its vaccine provision. Actually, though she did say speedboat, I think nimble was supplied by the Sun. Kate Bingham, heroine of the vaccine campaign (groundlessly vilified last year by politically motivated enemies), explained her success to La Repubblica: ‘Being quick and nimble was definitely important.’
To me, nimble is associated with Nimble bread, sold in the 1960s as ‘Slice for slice lighter than ordinary bread’.
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