True, true. I don't think there's anything recent about it -- look at the Victorians! They had euphemisms for every slightest indelicacy in life. Seems to me we were foolish to strip away those illusions. Better to keep our gaze high than to wallow in the mud.
It some Victorian lady that was embarrassed by by the different parts of fowl and started the use of "dark" and "light" meat to distinguish those parts.
BTW, plain speach has the gift of unambiguity.