diff --git a/lib/misc.zsh b/lib/misc.zsh
index 3f23b1733..5a3382fcd 100644
--- a/lib/misc.zsh
+++ b/lib/misc.zsh
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ export PAGER="less"
 export LESS="-R"
 
 ## how to interpret text characters
-if [[ -z "$LC_CTYPE" -a -z "$LC_ALL" ]]; then # only define if undefined
+if [[ -z "$LC_CTYPE" && -z "$LC_ALL" ]]; then # only define if undefined
 	export LC_CTYPE=${LANG%%:*}                 # pick the first entry from LANG
 	[[ -z "$LC_CTYPE" ]] && \
 		export LC_CTYPE=`locale -a | grep en_US.utf8 | head -1`