The story
- Old English · derived fromsmælþearme“lower gut, small intestine”
- Middle English · calque ofsmaltharm
- English todaysmall intestine
From small + intestine, perhaps a partial calque of Middle English smaltharm, smaleþarm, from Old English smælþearme (“lower gut, small intestine”, literally “small tharm”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.