diff --git a/compat/terminal.c b/compat/terminal.c
index b7f58d1781..35bca03d14 100644
--- a/compat/terminal.c
+++ b/compat/terminal.c
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 #include "strbuf.h"
 #include "run-command.h"
 #include "string-list.h"
+#include "hashmap.h"
 
 #if defined(HAVE_DEV_TTY) || defined(GIT_WINDOWS_NATIVE)
 
@@ -238,6 +239,71 @@ char *git_terminal_prompt(const char *prompt, int echo)
 	return buf.buf;
 }
 
+/*
+ * The `is_known_escape_sequence()` function returns 1 if the passed string
+ * corresponds to an Escape sequence that the terminal capabilities contains.
+ *
+ * To avoid depending on ncurses or other platform-specific libraries, we rely
+ * on the presence of the `infocmp` executable to do the job for us (failing
+ * silently if the program is not available or refused to run).
+ */
+struct escape_sequence_entry {
+	struct hashmap_entry entry;
+	char sequence[FLEX_ARRAY];
+};
+
+static int sequence_entry_cmp(const void *hashmap_cmp_fn_data,
+			      const struct escape_sequence_entry *e1,
+			      const struct escape_sequence_entry *e2,
+			      const void *keydata)
+{
+	return strcmp(e1->sequence, keydata ? keydata : e2->sequence);
+}
+
+static int is_known_escape_sequence(const char *sequence)
+{
+	static struct hashmap sequences;
+	static int initialized;
+
+	if (!initialized) {
+		struct child_process cp = CHILD_PROCESS_INIT;
+		struct strbuf buf = STRBUF_INIT;
+		char *p, *eol;
+
+		hashmap_init(&sequences, (hashmap_cmp_fn)sequence_entry_cmp,
+			     NULL, 0);
+
+		argv_array_pushl(&cp.args, "infocmp", "-L", "-1", NULL);
+		if (pipe_command(&cp, NULL, 0, &buf, 0, NULL, 0))
+			strbuf_setlen(&buf, 0);
+
+		for (eol = p = buf.buf; *p; p = eol + 1) {
+			p = strchr(p, '=');
+			if (!p)
+				break;
+			p++;
+			eol = strchrnul(p, '\n');
+
+			if (starts_with(p, "\\E")) {
+				char *comma = memchr(p, ',', eol - p);
+				struct escape_sequence_entry *e;
+
+				p[0] = '^';
+				p[1] = '[';
+				FLEX_ALLOC_MEM(e, sequence, p, comma - p);
+				hashmap_entry_init(&e->entry,
+						   strhash(e->sequence));
+				hashmap_add(&sequences, &e->entry);
+			}
+			if (!*eol)
+				break;
+		}
+		initialized = 1;
+	}
+
+	return !!hashmap_get_from_hash(&sequences, strhash(sequence), sequence);
+}
+
 int read_key_without_echo(struct strbuf *buf)
 {
 	static int warning_displayed;
@@ -271,7 +337,12 @@ int read_key_without_echo(struct strbuf *buf)
 		 * Start by replacing the Escape byte with ^[ */
 		strbuf_splice(buf, buf->len - 1, 1, "^[", 2);
 
-		for (;;) {
+		/*
+		 * Query the terminal capabilities once about all the Escape
+		 * sequences it knows about, so that we can avoid waiting for
+		 * half a second when we know that the sequence is complete.
+		 */
+		while (!is_known_escape_sequence(buf->buf)) {
 			struct pollfd pfd = { .fd = 0, .events = POLLIN };
 
 			if (poll(&pfd, 1, 500) < 1)