What does 'Tifosi' mean?

[Amethyst]

I know that the Tifosi are the Ferrari F1 fans but I want to know what the word Tifosi actually means. Does anyone know?

(I’m pretty much a Mclaren girl with a fondness for Sauber and I’ve felt like I was drowning in the red flood of Tifosi the times I’ve gone to the Canadian GP. )

[pravnik]

Went to one of them there Eye-talian online translators; apparently tifoso means simply “supporter” or “fan.”

[Amethyst]

Thanks! I tried a translator and Tifosi came back Tifosi! I didn’t think about trying any noun declensions.

I was really hoping it meant something like annoying person in a red shirt

[Eurograff]

It’s a bit more than that: basically “devoted fan/supporter”. Tifoso is singular, Tifosi plurar; female versions Tifosa and Tifose. The word is commonly associated with Ferrari fans, but apparently many football fans in Italy are also known by that name, for example Juventus is said to have over ten million tifosi around the country.

[Manduck]

I think the origin of the word has something to do with typhus, i.e. the tifosi’s devotion to Ferrari (or whatever) is being liked to a fever.

[bolthead]

I think you folks have it all wrong. Tifosi= “Backer of Winners”

[ElvisL1ves]

Not this year so far, bolthead.

I’ve heard Manduck’s explanation as well.

[Amethyst]

I like Manduck’s explanation! Don’t fevers sometimes lead to hallucinations/delusions??

[paperbackwriter]

“Tifosi” is also used to refer to Italian cycling fans. Such as in this example of fans in the 2001 Giro d’Italia:

It was a real fight on the Santa Barbara climb, with the mad Tifosi crowding the riders as they attempted to get to the top. Gilberto Simoni’s orange-clad “Simoni Hooligans” support club were particularly visible, but it was a standard Lampre-Daikin dressed fan who caught Wladimir Belli’s well timed punch on the nose a few kilometres from the top. This proved to be Belli’s undoing, after he was disqualified by the race jury a few hours after the stage - a huge blow to Fassa Bortolo.

Sort of like Italian equivalents of Philadelphia Eagles or Oakland Raiders fans, no matter what the sport.

Note also that “Italian fans” != “tifosi” Even Italian sports news realizes that Tifosi are a bit fanatical.

I can’t add anything about the connection (real or imagined) to typhoid fever.

[Olentzero]

According to this handily excellent Ita<>Eng dictionary here (free registration required), the word tifoso means both “typhus patient” and “supporter, fan”. Likely there is some definite connection, but given that I’m not familiar with the exact symptoms of typhus I won’t speculate further.

[paperbackwriter]

I guess the linguistic connection is possible:

TYPHOID FEVER
A systemic disease caused by S. typhi and characterized by fever, prostration, abdominal pain, and a rose-colored rash.
Symptoms and Signs
The incubation period (usually 8 to 14 days) is inversely related to the number of organisms ingested. Onset is usually gradual, with fever, headache, arthralgias, pharyngitis, constipation, anorexia, and abdominal pain and tenderness. Less common symptoms include dysuria, nonproductive cough, and epistaxis.
If no therapy is begun, the temperature rises in steps over 2 to 3 days, remains elevated (usually to 39.4 to 40° C [103 to 104° F]) for another 10 to 14 days, begins to fall gradually at the end of the 3rd wk, and reaches normal levels during the 4th wk. Prolonged fever is often accompanied by relative bradycardia and prostration, and CNS symptoms such as delirium, stupor, or coma occur in severe cases.

From the The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy_Seventeenth Edition

[Olentzero]

The Merck! God, I keep forgetting Mrs. O is a nurse and has all this stuff.