diff --git a/configure b/configure
index ebcdec32db3f50..7a9d9627e50dfc 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -24219,15 +24219,8 @@ printf "%s\n" "#define DOUBLE_IS_ARM_MIXED_ENDIAN_IEEE754 1" >>confdefs.h
 printf "%s\n" "#define DOUBLE_IS_LITTLE_ENDIAN_IEEE754 1" >>confdefs.h
  ;; #(
   *) :
-    as_fn_error $? "
-
-Unknown float word ordering. You need to manually preset
-ax_cv_c_float_words_bigendian=no (or yes) according to your system.
-
-           " "$LINENO" 5
-   ;;
-esac
- ;;
+    as_fn_error $? "Unknown float word ordering. You need to manually preset ax_cv_c_float_words_bigendian=no (or yes) according to your system." "$LINENO" 5 ;;
+esac ;;
 esac
 
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 0eba44320bfb8d..bc3d2d0e63b77a 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -5921,14 +5921,11 @@ AX_C_FLOAT_WORDS_BIGENDIAN(
            [wasm*], [AC_DEFINE([DOUBLE_IS_LITTLE_ENDIAN_IEEE754], [1],
                                [Define if C doubles are 64-bit IEEE 754 binary format,
                                 stored with the least significant byte first])],
-           [AC_MSG_ERROR([
-
-Unknown float word ordering. You need to manually preset
-ax_cv_c_float_words_bigendian=no (or yes) according to your system.
-
-           ])]
-  )]
-)
+           [AC_MSG_ERROR([m4_normalize([
+             Unknown float word ordering. You need to manually
+             preset ax_cv_c_float_words_bigendian=no (or yes)
+             according to your system.
+           ])])])])
 
 # The short float repr introduced in Python 3.1 requires the
 # correctly-rounded string <-> double conversion functions from