diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 49cf9dce..d69c3c31 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 2015-11-24  Benno Schulenberg  <bensberg@justemail.net>
 	* doc/syntax/makefile.nanorc: Also recognize the extensions .make and
 	.mk as Makefiles.  Suggested by Emmanuel Bourg in Debian bug #804845.
+	* src/color.c (color_update): Tell the user when a syntax name given
+	on the command line does not exist.  This fixes Savannah bug #46503.
 
 2015-11-23  Benno Schulenberg  <bensberg@justemail.net>
 	* src/nano.c (main), src/winio.c (parse_kbinput): Make Ctrl+Left and
diff --git a/src/color.c b/src/color.c
index 3c33aa7e..bb6f9eff 100644
--- a/src/color.c
+++ b/src/color.c
@@ -180,6 +180,9 @@ void color_update(void)
 	    if (openfile->colorstrings != NULL)
 		break;
 	}
+
+	if (openfile->colorstrings == NULL)
+	    statusbar(_("Unknown syntax name: %s"), syntaxstr);
     }
 
     /* If we didn't specify a syntax override string, or if we did and