Meanings
plural neenish tarts · alternative nienich tart
- AustraliaA small tart with a pastry base and gelatine-set cream filling, covered with icing in two colours, half and half.
“See if Mrs Clarke would like a neenish tart.”
2010, Philip Marshall, Wainui Days, page 821 more example
She had thought of a neenish tart but then wondered if the filling might run.
2008, Elizabeth Smither, The Girl who Proposed: New Short Stories, page 14
Origin
Unknown. The oldest known reference is a September 1895 advertisement in the Sydney Sunday Times for Nenish cakes. Derivation from a German or Viennese German word has been suggested, and the early spellings nienich (1935) and nenische (1959) appear consistent with a German origin, but the "very English" spelling neenish has been common since even earlier, being in a January 1903 recipe in the Launceston Daily Telegraph, a May 1924 Melbourne Argus article, and a 1929 cookbook by Lucy Drake, suggesting the Germanic spellings may have developed later to give the dish a Continental feel. A popular claim that the tarts were first made by a Ruby Neenish in Grong Grong, New South Wales circa 1913, when she ran low on cocoa preparing for an unexpected shower tea and made do with half-chocolate/half-white icing, was a hoax.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
neenish tart. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/neenish%20tart
“neenish tart.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/neenish%20tart. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “neenish tart,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/neenish%20tart.
Source: neenish tart on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.