'oligopeptide' originates from modern scientific formation combining Greek 'oligos' (meaning 'few') and Greek 'peptid-' from 'peptos'/'peptein' (meaning 'digested' or related to 'peptide'), used in biochemistry to denote a short peptide chain.

'oligos' comes from Ancient Greek 'oligos' meaning 'few', and 'peptide' comes from Greek 'peptos' (related to 'peptein', 'to digest') via modern scientific coinage 'peptide'; these elements were joined in modern biology to form 'oligopeptide' and then pluralized to 'oligopeptides'.

Initially the roots referred to 'few' and 'digested' (or 'related to digestion'); over time the combined modern term has come to mean specifically a short chain of amino acids rather than anything to do with digestion.