In the song, “Not a Care in the World” by Vernon Duke and John Latouche, the lyric says,
“Like that old queen of Russia
Kate the Great
Used to state long ago
‘Nichevo!’”
What means nichevo?
Never mind, no worries, not a problem, eh.
Literally, “Nothing.” In this context, what Mersavets said; “no biggie.”
There is a car ferry up on lake Superior named “Nichevo”, I always like saying to people “do you know what nichevo means in russian?..Nothing” So it’s not russian then? What does it mean then? I don’t get it? *who’s on first *kinda humor
In the computer game Jagged Alliance 2, “nichevo” is one of Ivan the mercenary’s order acknowledgement lines. I wondered what it meant.
RR
Nichego (it’s spelled with a ‘g’ but pronounced ‘v’ - one of the peculiarities of adjectives) is the genitive of the Russian nichto, which means “nothing”.
There are three shades of meaning I’ve come across:
-
The literal meaning . Ia nichego ne vizhu.
“I don’t see anything.” -
Fuhgeddaboutit. -Izvini, chto opozdal. -Da nichego, poka ne nachali.
“Sorry I’m late.” “No problem, we haven’t started yet.” -
Wow. -Smotri, kakaia devushka u Ivana. -Nichego sebe, krasavitsa!
“Check out the girl with Ivan.” “Wow, what a hottie!”
in the movie sum of all fears, when the russian prsident is asked ‘what will you do now?’ he replies, ‘nichivo’
I believe that the connotation is more: “Nothing can be done.” “It can’t be helped.” “You can’t fight city hall.”