It gives an impression of permanence (9,3)

'impression of permanence' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how one could define the other.

'it gives an' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'it' could be 'e' ('e' can mean 'electronic' which is similar to 'IT') and 'e' is present in the answer.
'an' could be 'i' (Roman numeral for one) and 'i' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?