dilutee

Why this word is great

DILUTEE — [Noun] An unskilled worker brought in to replace a skilled one, especially during wartime. From dilute ("to weaken or reduce in strength") + -ee ("one who undergoes the action"). Unlike "apprentice" (a trainee learning a skilled trade) or "strikebreaker" (a replacement hired to undermine labor action), a dilutee is a blunt instrument of necessity, a body pressed into service with no promise of growth. It is the factory floor humming with the fumbling hands of housewives turned machinists, the shipyard echoing with the misaligned rivets of clerks turned welders, the hospital ward where orderlies administer doses they cannot name—the quiet tragedy of necessity forcing square pegs into round holes, and calling it progress.