Meaning

noun the central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work

noun the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience

originThe noun is derived from Old French gist, a noun use of the third person singular indicative of gesir (“to lie down”) (modern French gésir; compare Anglo-Norman (cest) action gist (literally “(law) (this) action lies”)), from Latin iacēre, the present active infinitive of iaceō (“to lie down, lie prostrate, recline”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁- (“to throw”) (probably in the…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0