Skell

Skell

Skell, as a stereotypical or archetypal designation, refers to a person who is homeless, vagrant or derelict. It is often used to connote such a person who is habitually engaged in small-time criminal activity, especially by one working as a con artist or panhandler.

History

In its modern form, the use of skell as a slang term in the United States appears to date only from the 1970s, most especially from New York. The word has sometimes been used by the police officer characters on the tv show "NYPD Blue."

Origin

Possible origins for the word include:
*The seventeenth-century British slang word "skelder," a noun and verb which referred to a professional beggar, especially one who falsely pretended to be a wounded former soldier to gain sympathy; more generally, it could be used for a swindler or cheat. An early recorded use is by Ben Jonson, from his play Poetaster, written in 1601: 'An honest decayed commander, cannot skelder, cheat, nor be seene in a bawdie house.' In an older military connection, the term "skelder" seems to have been used in early medieval England to mean 'shield-maker' (Old Norse 'skjoldur'?), the supposed derivation of the streetname Skeldergate in the city of York.
* The Dutch "schelm," a word meaning a villain or rogue.
* The Latin "scelus," meaning a wicked deed or wickedness.
* An abbreviation of "skeleton."

Use in film and television

Crow T. Robot refers to Michael J. Nelson as a skell in a sketch performed in episode 905 of "Mystery Science Theater 3000."

Ed Burns (Mickey) refers to Mike McGlone (Francis) as a skell in the movie "She's the One."

Joe Pesci (Nicky Santoro) uses the term skell in his rant to Robert Deniro (Sam Rothstein) in the movie "Casino".

Police Officer Smitty refers to Bender as a skell when he and his partner, URL, are undercover in Little Bitaly in the second-season episode of Futurama entitled "Bender Gets Made".

External links

* [http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19970811 skell] defined in Random House dictionary
* [http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ske1.htm skell] defined in World Wide Words


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  • skell — n American a homeless person. The origin of the term, heard in the 1990s, is uncertain …   Contemporary slang

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  • skell — /skel/, n. Slang. 1. a homeless person who lives on the streets, sleeps in doorways or subways, etc.; derelict. 2. a slovenly person. [1950 55; perh. shortening of SKELETON] …   Useful english dictionary

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  • Ludwig Skell — (1842–1905), Voralpenlandschaft Ludwig Skell (auch: Sckell) (* 1842 in Obergünzburg; † 31. März 1905 in München) war ein deutscher Landschafts , Genre , Porträt und …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Fritz Skell — (* 1. August 1885 in München; † 9. März 1961 in Dießen am Ammersee) war ein deutscher Zeichner. Ab 1912 war er Universitätszeichenlehrer in München, ab 1915 Zeichenlehrer am Centralhospital Petoemboken, Sumatra. Von 1932 bis 1955 war er Professor …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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