When people used this phrase, was it a Kraft-Ebbing sort of reference to perverse sources of orgasmic spasm?
Kind of like “he’s a real stinker” when everone understood it meant “shit”
The earliest use of “kicks” as slang is about 1928. It meant “intense enjoyement; fun; diversion;” and, yes, it often was used in a sexual sense. This courtesy of The Historical Dictionary of American Slang by Jon Lighter. He’s the guru.
But I doubt that the original use was confined to meaning an orgasm.
No. “Kicks” just meant “what you do for fun.” (See the Paul Revere and the Raders song.)
I did not necessarily mean anything sexual.
Cole Porter’s “I Get a Kick Out of You” shows the term was already popular in 1934.
When Bobby Troupe wrote “Get your kicks on Route 66” in 1946, it was unlikely he was endorsing literally having sex on the highway.