diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 8360ed82cb..aa9fa714c0 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -347,7 +347,7 @@ endif
 libtesseract_ccutil_la_CPPFLAGS = $(AM_CPPFLAGS)
 libtesseract_ccutil_la_CPPFLAGS += $(libarchive_CFLAGS)
 if !NO_TESSDATA_PREFIX
-libtesseract_ccutil_la_CPPFLAGS += -DTESSDATA_PREFIX=@datadir@
+libtesseract_ccutil_la_CPPFLAGS += -DTESSDATA_PREFIX='"@datadir@"'
 endif
 
 noinst_HEADERS += src/ccutil/ccutil.h
@@ -513,7 +513,7 @@ libtesseract_lstm_la_CPPFLAGS += -DINCLUDE_TENSORFLOW
 libtesseract_lstm_la_CPPFLAGS += -I/usr/include/tensorflow
 endif
 if !NO_TESSDATA_PREFIX
-libtesseract_lstm_la_CPPFLAGS += -DTESSDATA_PREFIX=@datadir@
+libtesseract_lstm_la_CPPFLAGS += -DTESSDATA_PREFIX='"@datadir@"'
 endif
 
 noinst_HEADERS += src/lstm/convolve.h
diff --git a/cmake/Configure.cmake b/cmake/Configure.cmake
index 61ac626505..37000cb792 100644
--- a/cmake/Configure.cmake
+++ b/cmake/Configure.cmake
@@ -115,9 +115,8 @@ file(APPEND ${AUTOCONFIG_SRC} "
 ")
 
 if(TESSDATA_PREFIX)
- add_definitions(-DTESSDATA_PREFIX=${TESSDATA_PREFIX})
  file(APPEND ${AUTOCONFIG_SRC} "
-#cmakedefine TESSDATA_PREFIX ${TESSDATA_PREFIX}
+#cmakedefine TESSDATA_PREFIX \"${TESSDATA_PREFIX}\"
 ")
 endif()
 
diff --git a/src/ccutil/mainblk.cpp b/src/ccutil/mainblk.cpp
index 6e665b5fec..c1621b8a37 100644
--- a/src/ccutil/mainblk.cpp
+++ b/src/ccutil/mainblk.cpp
@@ -68,12 +68,8 @@ void CCUtil::main_setup(const std::string &argv0, const std::string &basename) {
 #endif /* _WIN32 */
 #if defined(TESSDATA_PREFIX)
   } else {
-/* Use tessdata prefix which was compiled in. */
-#  define _STR(a) #  a
-#  define _XSTR(a) _STR(a)
-    datadir = _XSTR(TESSDATA_PREFIX) "/tessdata";
-#  undef _XSTR
-#  undef _STR
+    // Use tessdata prefix which was compiled in.
+    datadir = TESSDATA_PREFIX "/tessdata";
 #endif
   }