Skell
Skell 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 from the 1960s, most especially from New York City. The word has sometimes been used by the police officer characters on the TV shows "NYPD Blue", "Third Watch", "Gotham", "", and "Blue Bloods". The term has been used so often 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. Origin. Possible origins for the word include: 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 (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 De Niro (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". Within the "Law & Order" television 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 ("Rise of the Villains") of "Gotham", Michael Chiklis (Captain Nathanial Barnes) 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" said 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 (Detective Walker) and his partner Dennis Franz (Detective Sipowicz) use the term several times when referring to a nervous Ethan Phillips (Dwight). In "Magic Man" the first episode of  the "Better Call Saul" fifth season, Bob Odenkirk (Jimmy McGill) uses the term when referring to his potential clients. In Breaking Bad, Season 5 Episode 5, "Dead Freight", Mike Ermantraut says to Round up some skels.