schipperke

Note: The word schipperke is conventionally taken as a diminutive of Dutch schipper "bargeman, boatman" (see skipper entry 2), allegedly alluding to the use of such dogs on canal boats as watchdogs or rodent catchers. It is claimed, however—as, for example, on the website of the Belgian kennel club, the Société royale Saint-Hubert—that the original word in the regional Dutch around Brussels and Leuven in Brabant, where the dog is said to have originated, was scheperke, a diminutive of scheper "shepherd." According to the Belgian veterinarian Adolphe Reul, the dog was exhibited under the name schipperke in a breed show held in Brussels on July 21, 1880, in connection with celebrations marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Belgian kingdom. The description of the breed read: "terriers à poil ras, zain, à oreilles droites, sans queue, à race flamande: schipperke" ("short-haired terrier, of a single color, with straight ears, tailless, Flemish breed: schipperke") ("Les chiens," Annales de médecin vétérinaire, 42. année, septembre et octobre 1893, p. 505). A documented history of schipperke as the name for a dog breed prior to 1880 does not appear to exist.