diff --git a/builtin_ulimit.cpp b/builtin_ulimit.cpp
index 37bebd61f..23524543a 100644
--- a/builtin_ulimit.cpp
+++ b/builtin_ulimit.cpp
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ static void print_all(int hard)
 
     for (i=0; resource_arr[i].desc; i++)
     {
-        w=maxi(w, my_wcswidth(resource_arr[i].desc));
+        w=maxi(w, fish_wcswidth(resource_arr[i].desc));
     }
 
     for (i=0; resource_arr[i].desc; i++)
diff --git a/common.cpp b/common.cpp
index ad35470e5..7429fcbe6 100644
--- a/common.cpp
+++ b/common.cpp
@@ -513,13 +513,14 @@ bool wcsvarchr(wchar_t chr)
     return iswalnum(chr) || chr == L'_';
 }
 
-
-/**
-	The glibc version of wcswidth seems to hang on some strings. fish uses this replacement.
-*/
-int my_wcswidth(const wchar_t *c)
+int fish_wcswidth(const wchar_t *str)
 {
-    return fish_wcswidth(c, wcslen(c));
+    return fish_wcswidth(str, wcslen(str));
+}
+
+int fish_wcswidth(const wcstring& str)
+{
+    return fish_wcswidth(str.c_str(), str.size());
 }
 
 wchar_t *quote_end(const wchar_t *pos)
diff --git a/common.h b/common.h
index 832883cd9..7932c8700 100644
--- a/common.h
+++ b/common.h
@@ -713,11 +713,13 @@ const wchar_t *wcsfuncname(const wchar_t *str);
 
 bool wcsvarchr(wchar_t chr);
 
-
 /**
-   A wcswidth workalike. Fish uses this since the regular wcswidth seems flaky.
+   Convenience variants on fish_wcwswidth().
+
+   See fallback.h for the normal definitions.
 */
-int my_wcswidth(const wchar_t *c);
+int fish_wcswidth(const wchar_t *str);
+int fish_wcswidth(const wcstring& str);
 
 /**
    This functions returns the end of the quoted substring beginning at
diff --git a/output.cpp b/output.cpp
index 312a90777..2c9f7d486 100644
--- a/output.cpp
+++ b/output.cpp
@@ -535,7 +535,7 @@ void writestr_ellipsis(const wchar_t *str, int max_width)
 
     CHECK(str,);
 
-    tot = my_wcswidth(str);
+    tot = fish_wcswidth(str);
 
     if (tot <= max_width)
     {
@@ -575,7 +575,7 @@ int write_escaped_str(const wchar_t *str, int max_len)
     CHECK(str, 0);
 
     out = escape(str, 1);
-    len = my_wcswidth(out);
+    len = fish_wcswidth(out);
 
     if (max_len && (max_len < len))
     {
diff --git a/pager.cpp b/pager.cpp
index 8d19c9bdc..04be06195 100644
--- a/pager.cpp
+++ b/pager.cpp
@@ -319,7 +319,7 @@ static comp_info_list_t process_completions_into_infos(const completion_list_t &
 
 void pager_t::measure_completion_infos(comp_info_list_t *infos, const wcstring &prefix) const
 {
-    size_t prefix_len = my_wcswidth(prefix.c_str());
+    size_t prefix_len = fish_wcswidth(prefix.c_str());
     for (size_t i=0; i < infos->size(); i++)
     {
         comp_t *comp = &infos->at(i);
@@ -332,11 +332,11 @@ void pager_t::measure_completion_infos(comp_info_list_t *infos, const wcstring &
             if (j >= 1)
                 comp->comp_width += 2;
 
-            comp->comp_width += prefix_len + my_wcswidth(comp_strings.at(j).c_str());
+            comp->comp_width += prefix_len + fish_wcswidth(comp_strings.at(j).c_str());
         }
 
         // Compute desc_width
-        comp->desc_width = my_wcswidth(comp->desc.c_str());
+        comp->desc_width = fish_wcswidth(comp->desc.c_str());
 
         // Compute preferred width
         comp->pref_width = comp->comp_width + comp->desc_width + (comp->desc_width?4:0);