diff --git a/Doc/lib/liblocale.tex b/Doc/lib/liblocale.tex
index df1f6fd2cb..967c75991e 100644
--- a/Doc/lib/liblocale.tex
+++ b/Doc/lib/liblocale.tex
@@ -398,7 +398,7 @@ Example:
 \begin{verbatim}
 >>> import locale
 >>> loc = locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL) # get current locale
->>> locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'de') # use German locale
+>>> locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'de_DE') # use German locale; name might vary with platform
 >>> locale.strcoll('f\xe4n', 'foo') # compare a string containing an umlaut 
 >>> locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, '') # use user's preferred locale
 >>> locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'C') # use default (C) locale
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index dc76cfe2e5..ba9684b6f3 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@ Core and builtins
 Extension modules
 -----------------
 
+- Bug #797447: Correct confusing error message for unsupported locales.
+
 - Patch #798534:  fixed memory leak in os.popen().
 
 - Bug #793826:  re-ordered the reference counting code in
diff --git a/Modules/_localemodule.c b/Modules/_localemodule.c
index 263e88179e..980302d4ef 100644
--- a/Modules/_localemodule.c
+++ b/Modules/_localemodule.c
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /***********************************************************
-Copyright (C) 1997, 2002 Martin von Loewis
+Copyright (C) 1997, 2002, 2003 Martin von Loewis
 
 Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its
 documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted,
@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ PyLocale_setlocale(PyObject* self, PyObject* args)
         result = setlocale(category, locale);
         if (!result) {
             /* operation failed, no setting was changed */
-            PyErr_SetString(Error, "locale setting not supported");
+            PyErr_SetString(Error, "unsupported locale setting");
             return NULL;
         }
         result_object = PyString_FromString(result);