'small-bodied' originates from the combination of the adjective 'small' (from Old English 'smæl') and the noun 'body' (from Old English 'bodig'), together with the adjectival/past-participle suffix '-ed' that forms compounds meaning 'having a body of the specified kind'.

'small' (Old English 'smæl') and 'body' (Old English 'bodig') existed separately in Old and Middle English; in Modern English compounds like 'small-bodied' were formed by joining 'small' + 'bodied' to describe organisms or objects 'having a small body', producing the modern compound 'small-bodied'.

Initially, the elements meant 'narrow/thin' (for 'smæl') and 'trunk, body' (for 'bodig'); over time the compound construction came to mean simply 'having a small body' in contemporary usage.