Cum or Come?

Current mood:  curious
Category: Writing and Poetry

I have been working with a new editor and she’s sharp as a tack. We’ve wrestled over a few things and managed to play nicely. However, I noticed that she changed all my “comes” to “cums” which happens to be a pet peeve of mine. I have no problem with the word being used in porn or the pages of sex magazines, or even colloquially.
I just don’t like it in my books. I think it’s a lazy word and I love words. Come is a word that conjures up all kinds of things…it beckons and seduces (in my mind anyway).
Cum, unfortunately is so prevalent, even spell check accepts it.
It’s a scary word in uneducated hands however because I’ve read contest entries and manuscripts where aspiring authors use cum where come should be. Honestly!
I read a romance author’s first few chapters recently and she had the characters “cumming to dinner.” I was horrified.
My new editor is fighting for cum and we’ll see who wins the battle of the c words but it got me thinking.
What if cum became the accepted spelling?
I remember a lovely line of Shakespeare’s, Come unto these yellow sands…it just wouldn’t have the same resonance if the line was Cum unto these yellow sands. To me, it conjurs up images of someone’s uncontrollable peeing…
What about Alan Parker’s wonderful WWII-era movie, Come See the Paradise? Would you want to see it with the word Cum inserted? Wouldn’t you wonder just where this paradise might be?
My mind boggles thinking of children in church singing Cum unto me…
Duran Duran
might have had a hit with Cum Undone…in fact, they might have had an even bigger hit. But I digress. It just doesn’t look as pretty as Come.
How about you? What do you think? I want to know! Cum…er, I mean, come post your comments!

Aloha oe,

A.J.

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