ˌrifəˈmīs ə n noun
( -s )
Etymology: International Scientific Vocabulary, alteration of earlier rifomycin , from rif- (from Rififi , title of a French film (1954), name arbitrarily assigned by the drug's Italian discoverers to a group of antibacterial substances) + -o- + -mycin
: any of several antibiotics that are derived from a bacterium of the genus Streptomyces ( S. mediterranei )