Shortness is the quality of being brief or small in length. Shortness of breath, the shortness of the visit, shortness of temper.
Shortness of breath is by far the commonest use and is a medical term — dyspnoea in the clinical vocabulary — reported constantly and taken seriously. Shortness of a text means brevity. Shortness with somebody means being curt. Note that shortness of stature is the careful clinical phrasing where ordinary speech says short. Note also short, shorten, shortly.
1nounshortnessThe quality of being brief or small in length.
“The shortness of the film surprised us; it was over in an hour.”
2nouncurtnessCurtness of manner.
“I was hurt by the shortness of her reply, just a single 'No'.”
shortness is a quality of brevity.
Old English sceortnes is short plus -ness. Short comes from a root meaning cut off, which also gives shirt and skirt.
Old English
sċortnes
Middle English
schortnesse
English, today
shortness
From Middle English schortnesse, from Old English sċortnes, sċeortnys, equivalent to short + -ness.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA