Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 15:34:44 EST

From: AAllan AAllan[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM

Subject: Re: skell?



You'll find it in the brand-new _Oxford Dictionary of New Words_ (1997), which

misleadingly takes the same title as its 1991 predecessor (without calling

itself a new edition), but seems to be almost entirely new.



It defines the word:

In New York, a homeless person or derelict, especially one who sleeps in the

subway system. Perhaps formed as a shortening of _skeleton_.



and cites the NY Times Magazine 31 January 1982, p 21:

"Other New Yorkers live there . . . eating yesterday's bagels and sleeping on

benches. The police in New York call such people 'skells.'"



as well as Newsday from 1988.



- Allan Metcalf