What is "brevitas"

Brevitas is a rhetorical style defined in Rhetorica ad Herennium as "the expressing of an idea by the very minimum of essential words." " Shit happens" and " c'est la vie" are examples of brevitas.

By implying more than is said, brevitas is distinguished from tautology and understatement.

Brevitas often contains elements of aphorism, parataxis, sprezzatura and elliptic linguistic style. It contrasts with periphrasis, aureation and pleonasm.