diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 6dea6e2e..c9ac861c 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+2015-12-05  Chris Allegretta <chrisa@asty.org>
+	* src/nano.c (main) : key_defined() is an ncurses-ism.  Add
+	better checks for this.
+
 2015-12-05  Benno Schulenberg  <bensberg@justemail.net>
 	* src/text.c: Fix compilation with --enable-tiny --enable-justify.
 	* doc/man/{nano.1,rnano.1,nanorc.5}, doc/texinfo/nano.texi:
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index c19fdc26..afc57005 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -527,6 +527,7 @@ else
 fi
 
 AC_CHECK_LIB([$CURSES_LIB_NAME], use_default_colors, AC_DEFINE(HAVE_USE_DEFAULT_COLORS, 1, [Define this if your curses library has the use_default_colors() command.]))
+AC_CHECK_LIB([$CURSES_LIB_NAME], key_defined, AC_DEFINE(HAVE_KEY_DEFINED, 1, [Define this if your curses library has the key_defined() command.]))
 
 dnl Parse any configure options.
 
diff --git a/src/nano.c b/src/nano.c
index 682ef1e2..b795fe9f 100644
--- a/src/nano.c
+++ b/src/nano.c
@@ -2706,7 +2706,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
     interface_color_pair[FUNCTION_TAG].bright = FALSE;
 #endif
 
-#if !defined(NANO_TINY) && !defined(USE_SLANG)
+#if !defined(NANO_TINY) && defined(HAVE_KEY_DEFINED)
     /* Ask ncurses for the key codes for Control+Left and Control+Right. */
     if ((int)tigetstr("kLFT5") > 0)
 	controlleft = key_defined(tigetstr("kLFT5"));