gist
/dʒɪst/noun
in sing.
1
- the substance or essence of a speech or text（演说或文章）主旨, 要点：
she noted the gist of each message.
她注意每一来电的要点。
2
- Law the real point of an action【律】诉讼要点：
damage is the gist of the action and without it the plaintiff must fail.
造成损伤是这次诉讼的要点, 不抓住它原告必定失败。
词源
early 18th cent.: 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 (sense 2).