diff --git a/pkgs/servers/search/sphinxsearch/default.nix b/pkgs/servers/search/sphinxsearch/default.nix
index 0b34c1f44a8f0..58887c5ef5e3d 100644
--- a/pkgs/servers/search/sphinxsearch/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/servers/search/sphinxsearch/default.nix
@@ -31,13 +31,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     expat
   ];
 
-  CXXFLAGS = lib.concatStringsSep " " (lib.optionals stdenv.isDarwin [
-    # see upstream bug: http://sphinxsearch.com/bugs/view.php?id=2578
-    # workaround for "error: invalid suffix on literal
-    "-Wno-reserved-user-defined-literal"
-    # workaround for "error: non-constant-expression cannot be narrowed from type 'long' to 'int'"
-    "-Wno-c++11-narrowing"
-  ]);
+  CXXFLAGS = "-std=c++98";
 
   meta = {
     description = "Open source full text search server";