diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 3bb61e63f..d93d2ed93 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -23,13 +23,7 @@ INSTALL_INFO = install-info
 #
 # This is particularly useful when EMACS is set in ~/.bash_profile
 #
-EMACS := $(shell echo "$${EMACS:-emacs}")
-
-# Emacs itself sets the $EMACS environment variable to t if it is not
-# present, so we should ignore the variable if this is its value.
-ifeq ($(EMACS),t)
-EMACS := emacs
-endif
+EMACS := $(shell which "$${EMACS}" || which "emacs")
 
 EFLAGS = --eval "(add-to-list 'load-path (expand-file-name \"tests/compat\") 'append)" \
 	 --eval "(when (< emacs-major-version 24) \