means A printing method in which raised metal or wood type is inked and pressed directly onto paper, leaving crisp characters and often a subtle physical impression.

from A plain compound of "letter" and "press," both arriving in English through Old French from Latin — "letter" from littera (a written character) and "press" from premere (to push or squeeze). The word names exactly what it does: letters in a press. It belongs to the world Gutenberg set in motion in the mid-15th century, when movable type met the screw press, and for roughly five centuries "letterpress" simply meant printing itself — only becoming a special, almost tender term once offset and digital methods made the pressing-into-paper feel optional rather than inevitable.