diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index bb4fbd10ca97f6b9bd7d000606b1e27edd889e7a..ac0dabd7c45fa6ba6fb19d0ddf81228ca0663667 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 2014-03-27  Mike Frysinger  <vapier@gentoo.org>.
 	* configure.ac - Make --disable-nanorc with --enable-color barf.
+	* configure.ac - Allow --disable-utf8 and --enable-utf8 to work.
 
 2014-03-26  Benno Schulenberg  <bensberg@justemail.net>
 	* configure.ac - Word, tab, and comment tweaks.
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index c3d7f07e6b5c409bb1c1e3fc2564772a2317b582..49fdf85898b73f28451dbc1a2048a922ae7e5029 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -182,9 +182,8 @@ if test "x$enable_nanorc" != xno; then
 fi
 
 AC_MSG_CHECKING([whether to enable UTF-8 support])
-enable_utf8=auto
 AC_ARG_ENABLE(utf8, AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-utf8], [Enable UTF-8 support]))
-AC_MSG_RESULT($enable_utf8)
+AC_MSG_RESULT(${enable_utf8:-auto})
 
 AC_MSG_CHECKING([whether to use slang])
 CURSES_LIB_NAME=""