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Gist vs Essential - What's the difference?

gist | essential |

As nouns the difference between gist and essential

is that gist is the most essential part; the main idea or substance (of a longer or more complicated matter); the crux of a matter while essential is a necessary ingredient.

As a verb gist

is to summarize, to extract and present the most important parts of.

As an adjective essential is

necessary.

gist

English

Noun

  • The most essential part; the main idea or substance (of a longer or more complicated matter); the crux of a matter
  • * 1948 , , Remembrance Rock , page 103,
  • "Should they live and build their church in the American wilderness, their worst dangers would rise in and among themselves rather than outside. That was the gist of the lesson from their pastor and "wellwiller" John Robinson."
  • *
  • * 1996 , Nicky Silver, Etiquette and Vitriol , Theatre Communications Group 1996, p. 10:
  • I was really just vomiting images like spoiled sushi (that may be an ill-considered metaphor, but you get my gist ).
  • * 2003 , David McDuff, translating Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment , Penguin 2003 p. 183:
  • I don't remember his exact words, but the gist of it was that he wanted it all for nothing, as quickly as possible, without any effort.
  • (legal, dated) The essential ground for action in a suit, without which there is no cause of action.
  • (obsolete) Resting place (especially of animals), lodging.
  • * 1601 , (Philemon Holland)'s translation of (w, Pliny's Natural History) , 1st ed., book X, chapter XXIII “Of Swallowes, Ousles, or Merles, Thrushes, Stares or Sterlings, Turtles, and Stockdoves.”, p. 282:
  • These Quailes have their set gists', to wit, ordinarie resting and baiting places. [These quails have their set ' gists , to wit, ordinary resting and baiting places.]

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To summarize, to extract and present the most important parts of.
  • * 1873 , Journal of Proceedings and Addresses of the National Educational Association, session of the year 1872, at Boston, Massachusetts , page 201:
  • There are two general ways of getting information, and these two general ways may be summed up in this: take one branch of study and its principles are all gisted', they have been '''gisted''' by the accumulated thought of years gone by. These ' gisted thoughts are axioms, or received principles,
    (extract the most important) (trans-mid) (trans-bottom)

    Anagrams

    * *

    References

    * * “ gist” in (w, Bouvier's Law Dictionary), Revised 6th Ed , 1856. * ----

    essential

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Necessary.
  • Very important; of high importance.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-17
  • , author=George Monbiot, authorlink=George Monbiot , title=Money just makes the rich suffer , volume=188, issue=23, page=19 , magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) citation , passage=In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. The welfare state is dismantled. Essential public services are cut so that the rich may pay less tax. […]}}
  • Being in the basic form; showing its essence.
  • Don’t mind him being grumpy. That’s the essential Fred.
  • Really existing; existent.
  • * Webster (1623)
  • Is it true, that thou art but a name, / And no essential thing?
  • Such that each complementary region is irreducible, the boundary of each complementary region is incompressible by disks and monogons in the complementary region, and no leaf is a sphere or a torus bounding a solid torus in the manifold.
  • (medicine) Idiopathic.
  • Synonyms

    * indispensable, crucial, substantive * See also

    Antonyms

    * inessential, unessential, accidental, nonessential, unneeded, adscititious, unimportant, accessorial, unnecessary, incidental

    Derived terms

    * essential amino acid * essential fatty acid * essential listening * essential nutrient * essential oil * essentially * essentialness * quintessential

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A necessary ingredient.
  • A fundamental ingredient.