diff --git a/commit.c b/commit.c
index edd4dedcdd..e9a29caa27 100644
--- a/commit.c
+++ b/commit.c
@@ -352,6 +352,19 @@ struct commit *pop_most_recent_commit(struct commit_list **list,
 	return ret;
 }
 
+void clear_commit_marks(struct commit *commit, unsigned int mark)
+{
+	struct commit_list *parents;
+
+	parents = commit->parents;
+	commit->object.flags &= ~mark;
+	while (parents) {
+		if (parents->item && parents->item->object.parsed)
+			clear_commit_marks(parents->item, mark);
+		parents = parents->next;
+	}
+}
+
 /*
  * Generic support for pretty-printing the header
  */
diff --git a/commit.h b/commit.h
index 6738a696d7..9c4a244bd9 100644
--- a/commit.h
+++ b/commit.h
@@ -58,6 +58,8 @@ struct commit *pop_most_recent_commit(struct commit_list **list,
 
 struct commit *pop_commit(struct commit_list **stack);
 
+void clear_commit_marks(struct commit *commit, unsigned int mark);
+
 int count_parents(struct commit * commit);
 
 /*
diff --git a/describe.c b/describe.c
index 84d96b5b82..00fa02adcc 100644
--- a/describe.c
+++ b/describe.c
@@ -124,9 +124,10 @@ static void describe(struct commit *cmit)
 		if (n) {
 			printf("%s-g%s\n", n->path,
 			       find_unique_abbrev(cmit->object.sha1, abbrev));
-			return;
+			break;
 		}
 	}
+	clear_commit_marks(cmit, SEEN);
 }
 
 int main(int argc, char **argv)