Where does “字間” come from?

字間 (Japanese) comes from Japanese 間, from Middle Chinese 間.

字間 (Japanese): an intercharacter space, the white space between the bottom/right edge of one character and the top/left edge of the next character, corresponding to "tracking" in Western typography

Definitions

  1. an intercharacter space, the white space between the bottom/right edge of one character and the top/left edge of the next character, corresponding to "tracking" in Western typography

Ancestry of “字間”, step by step

字間 traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Japanese 間

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese間interval; "suffixes some expressions of time to...
2Middle Chinese間—

via Japanese 字

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese字letter, character; handwriting, penmanship; a...
2Middle Chinese字letter, symbol, character; character
Every word from Middle Chinese 間 →Every word from Japanese 間 →