gist
dʒɪst/
noun
noun: gist; plural noun: gists
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2.LAWthe 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 (sense 2).
How my heart sings 