Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US) food poisoning, esp. with diarrhoea, suffered by tourists in Mexico or Egypt.

[1653		Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk II 226: After like manner, St. Anthony’s fire burn you, Mahoom’s disease whirl you, the squinance with a stitch in your side, and the wolf in your stomach truss you, the bloody flux seize upon you, the cursed sharp inflammation of wild fire, as slender and thin as a cow’s hair strengthened with quicksilver, enter into your fundament].
1960		Wash. Post and Times Herald 10 Apr. L6: The disorder occurs often in Mexico and has been nicknamed Montezuma’s revenge, turista, and ‘the trots.’ In Italy, Turkey, Egypt and India it is named Turkey trot, gippy tummy, and Delhi belly.
1961		T. Williams Night of the Iguana Act I: I knew that some of you ladies would rather be victims of Montezuma’s Revenge than spend cinco centavos on bottled water.
1967		E. Shepard Doom Pussy 227: Members suffering from the Far East Two-step, known in Egypt as the Pharaoh’s Revenge [etc.].
1977		Times 6 Jan. 17: I had a Mexican meal last night and I’ve got Montezuma’s revenge.
1984–5		Maledicta VIII 99: All of these appear in an earlier listing by Ed Cray, together with the more commonly recorded curse of Montezuma and Montezuma’s revenge.
1999		Islington Weekly Herald 4 June 10: We’ve had researchers collapse through [...] cases of what’s called Delhi Belly, Montezuma’s Revenge, or the Curse of the Pharaohs, depending on where you have it.
2002		Indep. Rev. 3 July 11: If you do get Montezuma’s Revenge, rule number one is to drink plenty of clear fluids to prevent dehydration.
2014		Santa Fe New Mexican (NM) 5 Aug. A-10/4: Euphemisms for the thing — Gandhi’s revenge, Gyppy tummy, the Rangoon runs, Tokyo trots [...] Montezuma’s revengs.