Meaning

noun breed of small stocky black dogs originally used as watchdogs on boats in the Netherlands and Belgium

originFrom Belgian Dutch (Flemish), but unclear at the word level. * Conventionally taken to be schipper (“skipper”) + -ke (“diminutive suffix”), allegedly alluding to a role as watchdog and/or rodent catcher on canal boats. * Alternatively, a mutation of scheperke, a diminutive of scheper (“shepherd, sheepdog”), referring to the breed's purported descent from an extinct larger breed of sheepdogs.…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0