In its modern form, the use of skell as a slang term in the United States appears to date only from the 1960s, most especially from New York City. The word has sometimes been used by the police officer characters on the TV showsNYPD Blue, Third Watch, Gotham, , and Blue Bloods. The term has been so overused on these programs that it has essentially come to mean any sort of criminal or perp, which itself has come to mean anyone accused of a crime. It also appears in the 1964 novel Last Exit to Brooklyn by American author Hubert Selby, Jr.
The 17th centuryEnglish 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', the supposed derivation of the streetname Skeldergate in the city of York.
The Latin scelus, meaning a wicked deed or wickedness.
Use in film, television and music
The term is used several times in the film Miller's Crossing, especially in regard to the character Bernie Bernbaum. 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 refers to Mike McGlone as a skell in the movie She's the One. Joe Pesci uses the term skell in his rant to Robert De Niro 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. Within the Law & Ordertelevision series, the term has been casually used by leading characters such as Det. Lennie Briscoe, Det. Elliot Stabler and Det. Mike Logan. In the Third Watch television series, the term has been frequently used in casual conversation between the leading NYPD characters such as John "Sully" Sullivan, Maurice "Bosco" Boscorelli and others. Starting in Season 2 of Gotham, Michael Chiklis often refers to miscellaneous but expectedly nefarious characters as "skells." He typically does so with a "shoot 'em if you need to" tone, alluding to the worthless nature of their character, both literally and figuratively. The term is mentioned in Type O Negative song "Der Untermensch", in the line "Skells like you allowed to live/ Get off society's back". The term is used frequently in the Public Morals television series written by Ed Burns and set in 1960s New York City. While cleaning up after a vagrant's vomit due to hallucinations and visions, a police officer in Max Payne 2 says about aforementioned vagrant "I've been cleaning up after this skell all night". In 'True Confessions' the fourth episode of the NYPD Blue first season, Robert Breuler and his partner Dennis Franz use the term several times when referring to a very nervous Ethan Phillips. Used in the series The Deuce starring James Franco.
