diff --git a/acinclude.m4 b/acinclude.m4
index c45b4d2df..dcf54f935 100644
--- a/acinclude.m4
+++ b/acinclude.m4
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ m4_define([CAIRO_PARSE_VERSION],dnl
 		m4_translit(dnl
 		m4_bpatsubst(m4_include(cairo-version.h),
 			     [^.define \([a-zA-Z0-9_]*\)  *\([0-9][0-9]*\)],
-			     [[m4_define(\1, \[\2\])]]),
+			     [[m4_define(\1, \2)]]),
 			    [A-Z], [a-z])dnl
 )dnl