gist vs message

gist

noun
  • The most essential part; the main idea or substance (of a longer or more complicated matter); the crux of a matter; the pith. 

verb
  • To summarize, to extract and present the most important parts of. 

message

noun
  • An underlying theme or conclusion to be drawn from something. 

  • An errand. 

  • See messages (“groceries, shopping”). 

  • A communication, or what is communicated; any concept or information conveyed. 

verb
  • To send (something) as a message; usually refers to electronic messaging. 

  • To send a message or messages; to be capable of sending messages. 

  • To send a message to; to transmit a message to, e.g. as text via a cell phone. 

How often have the words gist and message occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )