Gist is a word. Jist is a misspelling of gist or just, no more. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=gist%2Cjist&year_start=1800&corpus=26 https://boo

Gist is a word. Jist is a misspelling of gist or just, no more. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=gist%2Cjist&year_start=1800&corpus=26 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=gist%2Cjist&ye... makes me wonder just what happened around 1840. I suspect https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Why_the_Little_Frenchman_Wears_His_Hand_in_a_Sling https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Why_the_Little_Frenchman_Wear... (uses jist regularly as a misspelling of just) may have something to do with it.