Well attestedNamed from the place
Delhi belly
noun · first attested 1940s
The city was chosen for the rhyme, not for the bacteria.
Digestive illness or diarrhea, especially as suffered by a visitor to India.
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 1940s
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Delhi
- In English
Delhi belly
Green's Dictionary of Slang records the phrase from 1944, among British and American servicemen stationed in India during the Second World War. Nothing about Delhi makes it a worse offender than other Indian cities; belly simply needed a rhyme. The same formula gave Bali belly, and Mexico got Montezuma's revenge instead.
India
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