"skell"

[Jesse Sheidlower]

> Does anyone know the etymology of this word, used all the time on
> NYPD Blue to refer to "lowlife scumbags," as Sipowicz would call
> them?
>
> I've read some suggestions that it might be a shortened form of
> "skeleton," but I've been unable to find anything certain.  Any
> ideas?

I think (your colleague?) Jim Rader had posted some extensive
discussion of this in the past; a search of the ADS-L archives
might prove fruitful.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED