gist

 
Pronunciation: /dʒɪst/

noun

[in singular]
  • 1the substance or general meaning of a speech or text: it was hard to get the gist of Pedro’s talk
  • 2 Law the real point of an action: damage is the gist of the action and without it the plaintiff must fail

Origin:

early 18th century: from Old French, third person singular present tense of gesir 'to lie', from Latin jacere. The Anglo-French legal phrase cest action gist 'this action lies' denoted that there were sufficient grounds to proceed; gist was adopted into English denoting the grounds themselves (gist (sense 2))

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