diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 464edf55..e826007d 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -7,6 +7,11 @@ CVS code
   main()
 	- Fix nano not compiling with ENABLE_RCFILE and DISABLE_TABCOMP
 	  (David Benbennick).
+- rcfile.c:
+  colortoint()
+	- Don't bomb after invalid color and print bad color name
+	  (David Benbennick).
+	- And reset mcolor to -1.
 - nano.1, nano.1.html:
 	- Add initialization file comments, change some options from 
 	  bracketed to underlined to emphasize that they are not 
diff --git a/rcfile.c b/rcfile.c
index 0c43b500..dade1c43 100644
--- a/rcfile.c
+++ b/rcfile.c
@@ -215,10 +215,10 @@ int colortoint(const char *colorname, int *bright)
 	rcfile_error(_("color %s not understood.\n"
 		       "Valid colors are \"green\", \"red\", \"blue\", \n"
 		       "\"white\", \"yellow\", \"cyan\", \"magenta\" and \n"
-		       "\"black\", with the optional prefix \"bright\".\n"));
-	exit(1);
+		       "\"black\", with the optional prefix \"bright\".\n"),
+			colorname);
+	mcolor = -1;
     }
-
     return mcolor;
 }