diff --git a/hostconfig/hostconfig b/hostconfig/hostconfig
index 8d98aade..91cd6961 100755
--- a/hostconfig/hostconfig
+++ b/hostconfig/hostconfig
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ sub evalue_expression {
 	$options{'debug'} and warn join(' ',map("'$_'",@l)),"\n";
 	for (@l) {
 		s/\s*(.+?)\s*/$1/;
-		if (/^[a-z][a-z0-9$_-]*$/i) {
+		if (/^[a-z][a-z0-9_-]*$/i) {
 			$_=exists $tags->{$_} ? 1 : 0;
 		}
 	}