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Full Idea
It is a received opinion that language has no other end but the communicating our ideas, and that every significant name stands for an idea.
Gist of Idea
Language is presumably for communication, and names stand for ideas
Source
George Berkeley (The Principles of Human Knowledge [1710], Intro §19)
Book Ref
Berkeley,George: 'The Principles of Human Knowledge etc.', ed/tr. Warnock,G.J. [Fontana 1962], p.58
A Reaction
This attitude to language has been widely discredited, partly by the observation that 'idea' is very ambiguous, and partly by the fans of meaning-as-use. Truth conditions seem to be ideas, and so are speaker's intentions.