The Long History of a Short Form.
The aphorism, from Hippocrates to Maggie Nelson.
By Ryan Ruby via @laphamsquart
For a word that literally means definition, the aphorism is a rather indefinite genre. It bears a family resemblance to the fragment, the proverb, the maxim, the hypomnema, the epigram, the mantra, the parable, and the prose poem.
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/long-history-short-form