MovieChat Forums > Miller's Crossing (1990) Discussion > "Get up you skel ..." *SPOILER ALERT*

"Get up you skel ..." SPOILER ALERT

posted 9 years ago by Ironman54
2 replies | jump to latest

****SPOILER ALERT****

After they drag Bernie from the car and just before Tom gets instruction on how to shoot
Bernie, the hood kicks Bernie and says to him "Get up you 'skel' ..."
Now I've heard NYC cops use this term 'skel' (among 100 others) and presumed it was a regional/local term. Anyone else heard it used elsewhere ?

[–] childers-3 9 years ago

I've never heard it before this movie. It's a slang word for criminal, from the Dutch "skelder", to cheat. This is from Urban Dictionary.

[–] Dutchbloke91 9 years ago

Hm i'm dutch and I've never heard of the word skelder before. I think it more likely comes from the word "schelm". Which is an older dutch word meaning something like scoundrel