diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 6958c869..c15e05bf 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -68,6 +68,11 @@
 ### Fixed
 
 * `colors.alpha-mode=matching` not working as intended.
+* Grapheme shaping was allowed to be "enabled" at runtime, even though
+  disabled at compile time. This caused mis-rendering of certain
+  codepoints ([#2039][2039]).
+
+[2039]: https://codeberg.org/dnkl/foot/issues/2039
 
 
 ### Security
diff --git a/csi.c b/csi.c
index 81c71e31..b66fda21 100644
--- a/csi.c
+++ b/csi.c
@@ -558,7 +558,9 @@ decset_decrst(struct terminal *term, unsigned param, bool enable)
         break;
 
     case 2027:
+#if defined(FOOT_GRAPHEME_CLUSTERING)
         term->grapheme_shaping = enable;
+#endif
         break;
 
     case 2048: