Oliver Simões (asker) Dec 14, 2023:

Second translation entry On second thought, I have decided to add another dictionary entry for the term phrase in question. The translation suggested by Eduardo Confortin is (1) idiomatic, (2) fits in nicely with the English/Portuguese definitions I'm using, and (3) goes well with the three sentences I had mentioned and the one below. Here's the new entry:

beyond belief
(que) não está (escrito) no gibi

bom/mau/difícil/etc. demais para ser imaginado. (Cambridge, trad. própria). Se algo "não está no gibi", quer dizer que é "inacreditável" ou "impossível de ser imaginado" (Houaiss apud Rocha, 2012). "The brutality of the murders was beyond belief." (Ibidem). (A brutalidade dos assassinatos não estava no gibi.) © Oliver Simões

PS: Please note that non-idiomatic translations are unacceptable when idiomatic is available.

Oliver Simões (asker) Dec 13, 2023:

@All Thank you all for your suggestions/comments, especially Holly, who provided a couple of very useful references. After careful analysis, I decided to take a more literal approach and go with one of the definitions I found in her refs. The second reason for my choice is that the English translation has to be listed in a dictionary. Ideally, it should be idiomatic as well, but in this case it was impossible. Below is the final text that will go into the EN-PT dictionary. Example 1 was omitted due to a lack of space.

(something) is out of the ordinary [https://n9.cl/fad07 ]
(algo) é fora do comum; (algo) não está (escrito) no gibi

Diz-se de algo "inusitado, diferente ou estranho". (M-W, trad. própria). Se algo "não está no gibi", significa que é "incrível", "fora do comum" (Priberam), "inacreditável" ou "impossível de ser imaginado" (Houaiss apud Rocha, 2012).
1. (omitted)<br>2. "It seems strange that no one saw anything wrong with Charlie when he was 13, because what he did was out of the ordinary." (Townsend, 2022). (Parece estranho que ninguém tenha visto nada de errado com Charlie quando ele tinha 13 anos, porque o que ele fez não estava escrito no gibi.) © Oliver Simões

Raul Soares Junior Dec 13, 2023:

@Holly duplicate delivery is often caused by poor network connectivity at client's side and is out of control of the platform

Holly Holmes Dec 13, 2023:

Apologies, but does anyone know why my discussion responses are posting multiple times? I've asked a moderator about this previously and gotten no response. :(

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Raul Soares Junior Dec 13, 2023:

suggestion: '(sth.) is off the charts'

Oliver Simões (asker) Dec 13, 2023:

@Holly Thank you for the references.

Holly Holmes Dec 13, 2023:

References to add to the discussion Dicionário de locuções e expressões da língua portuguesa por Rocha e Rocha:

(p. 300)
"não estar no gibi: Ser fora do comum, extraordinário, inusitado, inacreditável.
Gibi era o nome de uma revista de quadrinhos, dirigida ao público infantojuvenil, atraído pelas histórias fantasiosas e aventurescas que se constituíam como sua característica."

Other references:
https://ciberduvidas.iscte-iul.pt/consultorio/perguntas/a-ex...
https://dicionario.priberam.org/não estar no gibi

Oliver Simões (asker) Dec 13, 2023:

Oh, please! As I noted earlier, "out of this world" is not an acceptable translation, it doesn't convey the same meaning. How can you say that I am "misunderstanding idiomatic" when I've been working on this idiomatic dictionary project for over two years now? You seem to be the one who has no clue of what an idiom is. No worries. I'll explain. To begin with, an idiom cannot be a single word. It has to be a phrase. More specifically, an idiom is "a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words (e.g., rain cats and dogs, see the light )." (Oxford Languages Dictionary). Clearly, "incredible" and "incredibly" (as you suggested) are not acceptable translations, either. Not only are they not idiomatic, they do not have the same meaning as the term phrase in question.

As far as "beyond measure", I beg to disagree. It is idiomatic and it's in several dictionaries of idioms, including Farlex ( https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/beyond measure ) and the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms ( https://n9.cl/2elqe ). In regard to "low authority complex", I never said or implied that it's an idiom. Of course, it isn't.

philgoddard Dec 13, 2023:

You're misunderstanding 'idiomatic', which makes this and many of your previous questions confusing.

It has two meanings: 'consisting of an idiom' (eg 'out of this world' and 'fluent and natural sounding'. My suggestion is idiomatic by the second definition.

You're trying to translate idioms with idioms, which is often impossible.

By the way, 'low authority complex' and 'professionals beyond measure' are not idiomatic by either definition.

Oliver Simões (asker) Dec 13, 2023:

@Phil "incredible/Incredibly" is not idiomatic. Someone on English Experts" suggested "out of this world", which is a better translation for "ser do outro mundo, ser muito bom, maravilhoso / inacreditável": https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-portugue... (That's not the same as "não está escrito no gibi").

PS: If nothing better comes up, I'll stick to my translation.

philgoddard Dec 13, 2023:

Incredible/incredibly? http://www.englishexperts.com.br/forum/como-dizer-nao-estar-...