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| "Cumming" seems to be a modern word, appearing in really |cheesy porn novels found in adult bookstores around the early |1980's. It's been used in lots of "mens" magazines like First Hand |and ManTalk, and recently has started to make its way into Variations |and Forum as well.
| I learned a lot of my erotica writing from Anne Rice, John |Preston, and Pat Califia, and most of their writing uses "coming." |Although I'm not averse to neologisms, I like "coming" better-- it's |a more refined word, I think. More class.

From: dkelly@bio2.acpub.duke.edu (Diane Kelly)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Is cum kosher?
Date: 23 Aug 1994 13:40:11 GMT

Here's the OED's take on the subject.

        come: v  16. to experience sexual orgasm. Also with -off. slang
              a. 1650 _Walking in Meadow Green_ in Bp. Percy's _Loose Songs_
             (1868): Then off he came, & blusht for shame soe soon that he had
              endit.
              b. 1714 _Cabinet of Love_: Just as we came, I cried, 'I faint! 
              I die!'

        cum: Latin preposition meaning "with; together with", used in English
             in local names of combined parishes or benifices, as
             Chorlton-cum-Hardy. Also used as a combining word to indicate a
             dual nature or function. 
              a. 1874 Trollope _Eustace Diamonds_: The Belgrave-cum-Pimlico life.

In short, "come" has a venerable tradition as a euphemism for sexual release. Elf Sternberg is right to say it has more class -- it's survived nearly 350 years with its meaning intact. Using "cum" to mean orgasm seems to be limited to stroke books and the more cheesey pornography -- and I'm afraid it implies that the user is less-educated. Along similar lines, I know "ain't" is a perfectly useful word, but I don't use it in conversation because it isn't quite proper.

Diane Kelly
Duke Zoology