Word of the week: Gist
The word gist has a rather interesting history. Today, it is used to mean the central point or the main idea of something. It’s the bottom line.
However, gist originally came from the French verb gesir, which means “to lie.” It was also used as a legal term: “cest action gist” meaning “this action lies.” Here’s how Word Detective says it:
“‘Cest action gist’ was used to assert the central point of a case or argument (‘This action lies in the defendant’s treason,’ for example) and, being a useful term, was adopted into English legal use in the early 18th century. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a misunderstanding of French going on, and ‘gist,’ which literally meant ‘lies or rests,’ was imported as if it were a noun meaning ‘the central point’”
Thus, although it was originally a verb, gist began to be used in English law as a noun meaning “the central point.” From there, gist has morphed into regular use in phrases like “the gist of the matter.”
Do you know any words like gist that changed meaning in translation?
Just learned this week that I’ve been spelling this word wrong my entire life. I’ve been spelling it ‘just’ instead of ‘gist.’ Sigh. We can’t all be perfect. (Speaking of which, I think your French is incorrect. ‘Cest’ I don’t believe is actually a word, but I think you mean a contraction that is C’est. That too would be wrong, because C’est means ‘that is,’ and the French sentence you have above already has a verb. The C is a contraction of ‘Ce’, which is French for ‘this.’ Maybe you mean that? Keep in mind, that French has masculine and feminine, as well as vowels, so ‘this’ in French translates to ‘Ce’ for masculine, ‘Cette’ for feminine, and ‘Cet’ for vowels. I’m not sure which ‘action’ is in French. I could also be entirely wrong. After all, I’ve only been spelling a four letter word wrong my whole life.)
Thanks for pointing that out, Sarah. I know nothing about French, so I just took Word Detective’s word for it!
Interesting! Translation has probably changed a lot of words. I know some names of towns and places that come from other languages are sometimes pretty odd.
These words of the week are always so interesting. I love seeing how language changes over time – it shows that it really is, as Prof. Hougen likes to say, a “creature.”