briefness vs shortness

briefness and shortness both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
briefness	Yes	No	No	No
shortness	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, shortness is a hypernym of briefness; that is, shortness is a word with a broader meaning than briefness:

briefness (noun)	shortness (noun)
the attribute of being brief or fleeting	an abrupt discourteous manner
the temporal property of being very short	the property of being shorter than average stature
	the property of being of short temporal extent
	the property of being of short spatial extent
	the property of being truncated or short
	the condition of being short of something