pith of the matter

The core, central, essential, or most important part(s) or element(s) of some matter at hand. I'd love to sit and catch up with you, John, but let's get to the right to pith of the matter and start talking business. Your Honor and the jury will find that the pith of the matter is revealed by this single piece of evidence—the murder weapon, with the suspect's finger prints all over it.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Valerija	-	Serbian, Croatian, Slovene, Lithuanian
Shulamith	-	Hebrew
Satisha	-	Hinduism
Carla	KAHR-lah (Spanish, German, Dutch), KAHR-lə (English)	Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, English, German, Dutch
Stanislava	stah-nee-SLAH-vah (Russian)	Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, Slovene, Russian, Medieval Slavic
BjÖRn	BYUURN (Swedish, German), PYUURN (Icelandic)	Swedish, Icelandic, German, Ancient Scandinavian