diff --git a/configure b/configure
index dec6f03034..a56c3d921b 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -2343,7 +2343,7 @@ if test -n "$target_cc" &&
     # emulation. Linux and OpenBSD/amd64 use 'elf_i386'; FreeBSD uses the _fbsd
     # variant; OpenBSD/i386 uses the _obsd variant; and Windows uses i386pe.
     for emu in elf_i386 elf_i386_fbsd elf_i386_obsd i386pe; do
-        if "$target_ld" -verbose 2>&1 | grep -q "^[[:space:]]*$emu[[:space:]]*$"; then
+        if "$target_ld" -verbose 2>&1 | grep -q "^[[:space:]]*${emu}[[:space:]]*$"; then
             ld_i386_emulation="$emu"
             break
         fi