means A mark, effect, or feeling left on someone or something — whether the belief you form about a person, the imprint pressed into a surface, or an imitation done for a laugh.

from From Latin imprimere, "to press into," built from in- ("upon") plus premere ("to press") — the same press that gives us print and express. The earliest sense was literal: a seal pushed into wax, a stamp driven into metal. The figurative leap — a mark pressed not into wax but into the mind — followed naturally, which is why a first impression still feels like something stamped on you.