diff --git a/src/fe-text/irssi.c b/src/fe-text/irssi.c
index 9a5132dc..d0462aaa 100644
--- a/src/fe-text/irssi.c
+++ b/src/fe-text/irssi.c
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@
 #include "textbuffer-reformat.h"
 
 #include <signal.h>
+#include <locale.h>
 
 #ifdef HAVE_STATIC_PERL
 void perl_core_init(void);
@@ -333,6 +334,14 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 	textdomain(PACKAGE);
 #endif
 
+	/* setlocale() must be called at the beginning before any calls that
+	   affect it, especially regexps seem to break if they're generated
+	   before t his call.
+
+	   locales aren't actually used for anything else than autodetection
+	   of UTF-8 currently.. */
+	setlocale(LC_CTYPE, "");
+
 	textui_init();
 	args_register(options);
 	args_execute(argc, argv);
diff --git a/src/fe-text/term.c b/src/fe-text/term.c
index 03004b10..a36e68fa 100644
--- a/src/fe-text/term.c
+++ b/src/fe-text/term.c
@@ -27,7 +27,6 @@
 #include "mainwindows.h"
 
 #ifdef HAVE_NL_LANGINFO
-#  include <locale.h>
 #  include <langinfo.h>
 #endif
 
@@ -155,7 +154,6 @@ void term_common_init(void)
         read_settings();
 
 #if defined (HAVE_NL_LANGINFO) && defined(CODESET)
-        setlocale(LC_CTYPE, "");
 	if (strcmp(nl_langinfo(CODESET), "UTF-8") == 0) {
 		term_type = TERM_TYPE_UTF8;
 		term_set_input_type(TERM_TYPE_UTF8);