gist vs quintessence

gist and quintessence both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
gist	Yes	No	No	No
quintessence	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, quintessence is a hyponym of gist; that is, quintessence is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than gist:

gist: the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience
quintessence: the purest and most concentrated essence of something

Other hyponyms of gist include bare bones, hypostasis, haecceity, quiddity, stuff.

gist (noun)	quintessence (noun)
the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience	the purest and most concentrated essence of something
the central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work	the most typical example or representative of a type
	the fifth and highest element after air and earth and fire and water; was believed to be the substance composing all heavenly bodies