backfill
n.— «I was mobilized to a stateside assignment at Fort Eustis in Virginia, where I would administer anesthesia at the McDonald Army Community Hospital. I was known as “backfill,” a term for identifying someone who fills the void left by a soldier being deployed overseas.» —“Destination: Iraq” Rutland Herald (Vermont) Oct. 22, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Jane Alberdeston is a poet who lives in Norfolk, Virginia, but she’s originally from Puerto Rico, and notes that in the capital of Puerto Rico, San Juan, there’s a famous statue of Christopher Columbus with his finger pointing toward the horizon. In...
Rob and Andrea in Wilmington, Delaware, ask about a word they associate with southern West Virginia. It’s a word for something you “put on” bad behavior to shut it down, and it sounds like it’d be spelled something like quieenus. Their word is...