Sunrise/Sunset

My dictionary (Merriam-Webster) gives sunrise as "salida del sol" and sunset as "puesta del sol". I wasn't sure about this as it seemed to me that sunset should be the 'departure' of the sun, so I checked 3 online translators; one agreed with my dictionary, the other two had it reversed, i.e. salida del sol for sunset. I am now officially and thoroughly confused. Can someone please tell me which is really correct? Gracias, Randy

Hola Randy. You raise a really interesting point. I have no idea why "salida del sol" should mean sunrise rather than sunset. Perhaps the origin goes back to very early times when people may have thought that the sun leaves its home each day to go into the sky (that's just a wild guess, and it's probably wrong :) ). Anyway, for what it's worth, I checked three dictionaries: the Larousse College Dictionary, Babylon Pro (which uses the VOX Advanced Spanish-English English-Spanish Dictionary, among others), and WordReference.com, which is the only Internet translator that I've found to be worthwhile (the translation services from Google, Babel Fish, etc. can sometimes be useful for getting a general sense of a passage, but for the most part they seem to me best as comic relief :D ). All three dictionaries that I consulted agreed that salida del sol = sunrise and puesta de(l) sol = sunset. I hope that helps, though I'm as puzzled as you are by the origins.

I think Nohablo got pretty close. It is said that the sun at the end of each day hides away in the horizon so in the morning like nohablo says, it leaves or comes out of it's home or hiding place... therefore...*La salida del sol*. Other words that are used when the sun comes out and it starts getting light is.. *el amanecer or la madrugada*... but this is more like daybreak or dawn. Mauricio.

¡Gracias amigos! That helps me make sense of it, and will help me remember the difference. Nice call nohablo!