The story
From French Rif(ifi) (“a French crime film”) + am(ino)- + -mycin (“antibiotic”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
rifamycin
Today it means: Any of a group of antibiotics, a subclass of the ansamycins, which are synthesized either naturally by the bacterium Amycolatopsis mediterranei or artificially. Full definition →