diff --git a/src/common/va_copy.h b/src/common/va_copy.h
index 7354d6207..18c8a75b7 100644
--- a/src/common/va_copy.h
+++ b/src/common/va_copy.h
@@ -40,9 +40,12 @@
 
 /* The watcom compiler doesn't have va_copy and a problematic va_list definition */
 #if defined(__WATCOMC__)
-
 #define va_copy(dest,src)       memcpy((dest), (src), sizeof (va_list))
+#endif
 
+/* GNU C before version 3 has its own name */
+#if defined(__GNUC__) && (__GNUC__ == 2)
+#define va_copy(dest,src)       __va_copy(dest, src)
 #endif