diff --git a/share/functions/__fish_describe_command.fish b/share/functions/__fish_describe_command.fish
index e11d49b0c..7fb334d78 100644
--- a/share/functions/__fish_describe_command.fish
+++ b/share/functions/__fish_describe_command.fish
@@ -3,8 +3,20 @@
 #
 
 function __fish_describe_command -d "Command used to find descriptions for commands"
-    command -sq apropos; or return
-    # Some systems could use -s 1,8 here, but FreeBSD doesn't have that.
-    apropos $argv 2>/dev/null | string replace -rf '^(\S+) \(\S+\)\s+- (.*)' '$1\t$2' \
-    | string match (string replace -a '*' '\*' -- "$argv")"*"
+    # We're going to try to build a regex out of $argv inside awk.
+    # Make sure $argv has no special characters.
+    # TODO: stop interpolating argv into regex, and remove this hack.
+    string match --quiet --regex '^[a-zA-Z0-9_ ]+$' -- "$argv"
+    or return
+    type -q apropos; or return
+    apropos $argv 2>/dev/null | awk -v FS=" +- +" '{
+		split($1, names, ", ");
+		for (name in names)
+			if (names[name] ~ /^'"$argv"'.* *\([18]\)/ ) {
+				sub( "( |\t)*\\\([18]\\\)", "", names[name] );
+				sub( " \\\[.*\\\]", "", names[name] );
+				print names[name] "\t" $2;
+			}
+	}'
 end
+