# "Is that how you get your kicks" in pre-sexual revolution usage

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-you-get-your-kicks-in-pre-sexual-revolution-usage/448946>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 11, 2008, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-you-get-your-kicks-in-pre-sexual-revolution-usage/448946 "2008-05-11T19:48:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-you-get-your-kicks-in-pre-sexual-revolution-usage/448946/1 "2008-05-11T19:48:12Z")

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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”

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-you-get-your-kicks-in-pre-sexual-revolution-usage/448946/2 "2008-05-11T20:30:58Z")

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[QUOTE=Slithy Tove]  
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”  
[/QUOTE]

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.

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-you-get-your-kicks-in-pre-sexual-revolution-usage/448946/3 "2008-05-11T20:32:07Z")

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No. “Kicks” just meant “what you do for fun.” (See the Paul Revere and the Raders song.)

I did not necessarily mean anything sexual.

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**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-you-get-your-kicks-in-pre-sexual-revolution-usage/448946/4 "2008-05-11T21:36:13Z")

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Cole Porter’s “I Get a Kick Out of You” shows the term was already popular in 1934.

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**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-how-you-get-your-kicks-in-pre-sexual-revolution-usage/448946/5 "2008-05-12T00:30:28Z")

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When Bobby Troupe wrote “Get your kicks on Route 66” in 1946, it was unlikely he was endorsing literally having sex on the highway.