Lucifer searches

'Lucifer' searches surge after Boehner’s comments on Cruz

By BRIANNA EHLEY

The word “Lucifer” lit up the Internet in the past 24 hours — after news surfaced that former House Speaker John Boehner used the name to describe his former congressional colleague and GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz.

According to Merriam-Webster’s “Trend Watch,” searches for “Lucifer” surged 7,700 percent since Thursday following reports that Boehner was expressing contempt for Cruz, calling him “Lucifer in the flesh” while speaking at Stanford University earlier this week. The newly retired speaker followed that up with saying he had "never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.” His comments quickly went viral.

Merriam-Webster's notes that the word commonly refers to "Satan" and further defined it to include "light-bearing" and "Venus."

In the Bible, Lucifer had his beginnings as an angel of light, but was proud and chose to rebel, leading to his fall.