[Alteration (perhaps influenced by A(MINO-)) of earlier rifomycin : Rififi, alternate title of Du rififi chez les hommes, a 1955 French film noir that was a favorite of the researchers who first isolated rifamycins and who used film titles as nicknames for new compounds before formal publication of their results (from French slang rififi, scuffle, gang rumble, from reduplication of rif, fire, gunfire, combat, from Italian slang ruffo, fire, from dialectal Italian ruffo, red-headed, from Latin rūfus, reddish, red-headed; see reudh in the Appendix of Indo-European roots) + -MYCIN.]