The “Sun” is leaving? Definitely sunset…wait a minute-

“The sun is exiting the horizon and going up into the sky” 🙄 let me guess, the “sun” is going to “enter” the horizon and 日の入 means “sunset”??

by reeee-irl

27 comments
  1. 出 isn’t limited to “exit” in its meaning, it can also mean “to emerge”, “to produce”. Like 精子を出す, “ejaculate”. When the Sun is emerging from the ground, it’s 日の出. When the Sun is entering the ground it’s 日の入り.

  2. In Spanish we call it “la salida del sol” (the exit of the sun), languages are very versatile, you can’t translate everything from the english in a literal way, think of it as “the coming out of the sun”.

  3. This is an issue with trying to map a kanji/word to a single English meaning. 出 can mean “exit”, but it also means things like “come/go out”, “expel”, “stick out”, “put out”, “appear”, “present/give”, etc. etc. In this specific case 出る and 出す are very common words that mean quite a lot of things.

  4. Obviously the earth is a thing you can enter and exit, whereas the sky is just a big nothing. It’s like, you don’t call leaving your house “entering the outside,” that would be madness. It’s so obvious lol (this tripped me up at first too).

  5. The sun leaves its cozy home (on the other side of the planet) so that everyone can see it outdoors, duh?

  6. 出 means exit but it more suggests coming/going out so you can’t think of it as the sun coming out

  7. LOL, I remember I thought the same when I did that kanji even if here in Italy we do say “Esce il Sole”, literally : “The Sun Exits”, to mean “The sun comes out”

  8. 出 often refers to something coming out of somewhere and becoming visible – as if it’s coming out of a hiding place, so to speak. 日の出 is entirely consistent with the expected meaning given its components.

    And you’re almost correct, sunset is 日の入り.

    Your confusion on this is a problem with your understanding, not with Japanese as a language. And that’s not me saying “lol, you’re dumb” or anything, it’s an expected part of learning anything and may well have something to do with how WaniKani teaches you, but immediately jumping to frustration with the language and assuming it’s a weird inconsistency instead of thinking you may be missing some understanding isn’t doing you any favours.

  9. >日の入 means “sunset”??

    The sun enters the horizon, I think we all have imagined that as kids, I dont know what is so confusing when English works the same way

  10. I just think of “日の出サンライズアタック!!” from nakitai watashi es neko wo kaburu. But that might just be me 😅

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