diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 173f11fd3f..cc6f1b187c 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -33364,7 +33364,7 @@ if test "$GCC" = "yes" ; then
         WXCONFIG_CXXFLAGS="$WXCONFIG_CXXFLAGS -fno-exceptions"
     fi
     if test "$wxUSE_PERMISSIVE" = "yes" ; then
-        WXCONFIG_CFLAGS="$WXCONFIG_CFLAGS -fpermissive"
+        WXCONFIG_CXXFLAGS="$WXCONFIG_CXXFLAGS -fpermissive"
     fi
 
                                                 case "${host}" in
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index ac868c0b63..ed211cee13 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -5462,7 +5462,7 @@ if test "$GCC" = "yes" ; then
         WXCONFIG_CXXFLAGS="$WXCONFIG_CXXFLAGS -fno-exceptions"
     fi
     if test "$wxUSE_PERMISSIVE" = "yes" ; then
-        WXCONFIG_CFLAGS="$WXCONFIG_CFLAGS -fpermissive"
+        WXCONFIG_CXXFLAGS="$WXCONFIG_CXXFLAGS -fpermissive"
     fi
 
     dnl Ian Brown <ian.brown@printsoft.de> reports that versions of gcc before