diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index d1feab008fc..4936e234bc1 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -409,15 +409,6 @@ all::
 # Define NEEDS_LIBRT if your platform requires linking with librt (glibc version
 # before 2.17) for clock_gettime and CLOCK_MONOTONIC.
 #
-# Define USE_PARENS_AROUND_GETTEXT_N to "yes" if your compiler happily
-# compiles the following initialization:
-#
-#   static const char s[] = ("FOO");
-#
-# and define it to "no" if you need to remove the parentheses () around the
-# constant.  The default is "auto", which means to use parentheses if your
-# compiler is detected to support it.
-#
 # Define HAVE_BSD_SYSCTL if your platform has a BSD-compatible sysctl function.
 #
 # Define HAVE_GETDELIM if your system has the getdelim() function.
@@ -497,8 +488,7 @@ all::
 #
 #    pedantic:
 #
-#        Enable -pedantic compilation. This also disables
-#        USE_PARENS_AROUND_GETTEXT_N to produce only relevant warnings.
+#        Enable -pedantic compilation.
 
 GIT-VERSION-FILE: FORCE
 	@$(SHELL_PATH) ./GIT-VERSION-GEN
@@ -1347,14 +1337,6 @@ ifneq (,$(SOCKLEN_T))
 	BASIC_CFLAGS += -Dsocklen_t=$(SOCKLEN_T)
 endif
 
-ifeq (yes,$(USE_PARENS_AROUND_GETTEXT_N))
-	BASIC_CFLAGS += -DUSE_PARENS_AROUND_GETTEXT_N=1
-else
-ifeq (no,$(USE_PARENS_AROUND_GETTEXT_N))
-	BASIC_CFLAGS += -DUSE_PARENS_AROUND_GETTEXT_N=0
-endif
-endif
-
 ifeq ($(uname_S),Darwin)
 	ifndef NO_FINK
 		ifeq ($(shell test -d /sw/lib && echo y),y)
diff --git a/config.mak.dev b/config.mak.dev
index 022fb582180..41d6345bc0a 100644
--- a/config.mak.dev
+++ b/config.mak.dev
@@ -4,8 +4,6 @@ SPARSE_FLAGS += -Wsparse-error
 endif
 ifneq ($(filter pedantic,$(DEVOPTS)),)
 DEVELOPER_CFLAGS += -pedantic
-# don't warn for each N_ use
-DEVELOPER_CFLAGS += -DUSE_PARENS_AROUND_GETTEXT_N=0
 endif
 DEVELOPER_CFLAGS += -Wall
 DEVELOPER_CFLAGS += -Wdeclaration-after-statement
diff --git a/gettext.h b/gettext.h
index c8b34fd6122..d209911ebb8 100644
--- a/gettext.h
+++ b/gettext.h
@@ -55,31 +55,7 @@ const char *Q_(const char *msgid, const char *plu, unsigned long n)
 }
 
 /* Mark msgid for translation but do not translate it. */
-#if !USE_PARENS_AROUND_GETTEXT_N
 #define N_(msgid) msgid
-#else
-/*
- * Strictly speaking, this will lead to invalid C when
- * used this way:
- *	static const char s[] = N_("FOO");
- * which will expand to
- *	static const char s[] = ("FOO");
- * and in valid C, the initializer on the right hand side must
- * be without the parentheses.  But many compilers do accept it
- * as a language extension and it will allow us to catch mistakes
- * like:
- *	static const char *msgs[] = {
- *		N_("one")
- *		N_("two"),
- *		N_("three"),
- *		NULL
- *	};
- * (notice the missing comma on one of the lines) by forcing
- * a compilation error, because parenthesised ("one") ("two")
- * will not get silently turned into ("onetwo").
- */
-#define N_(msgid) (msgid)
-#endif
 
 const char *get_preferred_languages(void);
 int is_utf8_locale(void);
diff --git a/git-compat-util.h b/git-compat-util.h
index b46605300ab..ddc65ff61d9 100644
--- a/git-compat-util.h
+++ b/git-compat-util.h
@@ -1253,10 +1253,6 @@ int warn_on_fopen_errors(const char *path);
  */
 int open_nofollow(const char *path, int flags);
 
-#if !defined(USE_PARENS_AROUND_GETTEXT_N) && defined(__GNUC__)
-#define USE_PARENS_AROUND_GETTEXT_N 1
-#endif
-
 #ifndef SHELL_PATH
 # define SHELL_PATH "/bin/sh"
 #endif