diff --git a/doc/nano.texi b/doc/nano.texi
index 34be2dbd2fc98934fff001538a2250fe46fff829..dbda4ee6b0fd987bec58889fe9ba9a47dd7efe87 100644
--- a/doc/nano.texi
+++ b/doc/nano.texi
@@ -755,7 +755,8 @@ Use this color combination for the concise function descriptions
 in the two help lines at the bottom of the screen.
 Valid names for foreground and background color are:
 @code{white}, @code{black}, @code{blue}, @code{green},
-@code{red}, @code{cyan}, @code{yellow}, and @code{magenta}.
+@code{red}, @code{cyan}, @code{yellow}, @code{magenta}, and @code{normal}
+--- where @code{normal} means the default foreground or background color.
 The name of the foreground color may be prefixed with @code{bright}.
 And either @var{fgcolor} or ,@var{bgcolor} may be left out.
 
diff --git a/doc/nanorc.5 b/doc/nanorc.5
index 4f72395d677b5f765ef7a63fa34c1021703204a6..b2b2fbcba25b690a6c367978e5815f4dcc081d00 100644
--- a/doc/nanorc.5
+++ b/doc/nanorc.5
@@ -264,7 +264,9 @@ Save automatically on exit, don't prompt.
 .B set titlecolor \fIfgcolor\fR,\fIbgcolor\fR
 Specify the color combination to use for the title bar.
 Valid names for the foreground and background colors are:
-.BR white ", " black ", " blue ", " green ", " red ", " cyan ", " yellow ",  and " magenta .
+.BR white ", " black ", " blue ", " green ", " red ", "
+.BR cyan ", " yellow ", " magenta ", and " normal
+-- where \fBnormal\fR means the default foreground or background color.
 The name of the foreground color may be prefixed with \fBbright\fR.
 And either "\fIfgcolor\fR" or ",\fIbgcolor\fR" may be left out.
 .TP
diff --git a/syntax/nanorc.nanorc b/syntax/nanorc.nanorc
index ab0372d51b3c7a3df2f3c35b546af26c1c195543..f71088cc03cf948a24869b7f71bf246454ecc231 100644
--- a/syntax/nanorc.nanorc
+++ b/syntax/nanorc.nanorc
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ icolor brightred "^[[:space:]]*((un)?(bind|set)|include|syntax|header|magic|comm
 
 # Keywords
 icolor brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*(set|unset)[[:space:]]+(allow_insecure_backup|atblanks|autoindent|backup|backwards|boldtext|casesensitive|constantshow|cutfromcursor|fill[[:space:]]+-?[[:digit:]]+|historylog|linenumbers|locking|morespace|mouse|multibuffer|noconvert|nohelp|nopauses|nonewlines|nowrap|positionlog|preserve|quickblank|quiet|rebinddelete|rebindkeypad|regexp|showcursor|smarthome|smooth|softwrap|suspend|tabsize[[:space:]]+[1-9][0-9]*|tabstospaces|tempfile|trimblanks|unix|view|wordbounds)\>"
-icolor yellow "^[[:space:]]*set[[:space:]]+((error|function|key|number|selected|status|title)color)[[:space:]]+(bright)?(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan)?(,(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan))?\>"
+icolor yellow "^[[:space:]]*set[[:space:]]+((error|function|key|number|selected|status|title)color)[[:space:]]+(bright)?(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan|normal)?(,(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan|normal))?\>"
 icolor brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*set[[:space:]]+(backupdir|brackets|errorcolor|functioncolor|keycolor|matchbrackets|numbercolor|operatingdir|punct|quotestr|selectedcolor|speller|statuscolor|titlecolor|whitespace|wordchars)[[:space:]]+"
 icolor brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*bind[[:space:]]+((\^([[:alpha:]]|[]0-9\^_]|Space)|M-([[:alpha:]]|[]!"#$%&'()*+,./0-9:;<=>?@\^_`{|}~-]|Space))|F([1-9]|1[0-6])|Ins|Del)[[:space:]]+([[:alpha:]]+|".*")[[:space:]]+(all|main|search|replace(with)?|gotoline|writeout|insert|ext(ernal)?cmd|help|spell|linter|browser|whereisfile|gotodir)([[:space:]]+#|[[:space:]]*$)"
 icolor brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*unbind[[:space:]]+((\^([[:alpha:]]|[]0-9\^_]|Space)|M-([[:alpha:]]|[]!"#$%&'()*+,./0-9:;<=>?@\^_`{|}~-]|Space))|F([1-9]|1[0-6])|Ins|Del)[[:space:]]+(all|main|search|replace(with)?|gotoline|writeout|insert|ext(ernal)?cmd|help|spell|linter|browser|whereisfile|gotodir)([[:space:]]+#|[[:space:]]*$)"
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ icolor green "^[[:space:]]*((un)?(bind|set)|include|syntax|header|magic|comment|
 color brightmagenta "".+"([[:space:]]|$)"
 
 # Colors
-icolor yellow "^[[:space:]]*i?color[[:space:]]*(bright)?(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan)?(,(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan))?\>"
+icolor yellow "^[[:space:]]*i?color[[:space:]]*(bright)?(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan|normal)?(,(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan|normal))?\>"
 icolor magenta "^[[:space:]]*i?color\>" "\<(start|end)="
 
 # Comments