diff --git a/init/fish.in b/init/fish.in
index 389b70dc6..15808f8cd 100644
--- a/init/fish.in
+++ b/init/fish.in
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ end
 # used by other init files.
 #
 
-if which gettext >/dev/null ^/dev/null
+if test 1 = "@HAVE_GETTEXT@"; and which gettext >/dev/null ^/dev/null
 	function _ -d "Alias for the gettext command"
 		gettext fish $argv
 	end