diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 24eb4b4c64..1795e08d68 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -2361,10 +2361,12 @@ EOF
 fi
 if test "$_big_endian" = yes ; then
   _byte_order='big-endian'
-  def_words_endian='#define HAVE_BIGENDIAN 1'
+  def_words_endian='#define WORDS_BIGENDIAN 1'
+  def_bigendian='#define HAVE_BIGENDIAN 1'
 else
   _byte_order='little-endian'
-  def_words_endian='#define HAVE_BIGENDIAN 0'
+  def_words_endian='#undef WORDS_BIGENDIAN'
+  def_bigendian='#define HAVE_BIGENDIAN 0'
 fi
 echores "$_byte_order"
 
@@ -8582,6 +8584,7 @@ $def_pthread_cache
 /* CPU stuff */
 #define __CPU__ $iproc
 $def_words_endian
+$def_bigendian
 $(ff_config_enable "$_arch_all" "$_arch" "ARCH")
 $(ff_config_enable "$_cpuexts_all" "$_cpuexts" "HAVE")