diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 3155dfe855..4dd2294c08 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
+Wed Apr 20 15:52:28 2016  Nobuyoshi Nakada  <nobu@ruby-lang.org>
+
+	* error.c (syntax_error_initialize): move the default message,
+	  "compile error", from parse.y.  the default parameter should
+	  belong to the class definition.
+
+	* parse.y (yycompile0): use the default parameter.
+
 Wed Apr 20 10:25:53 2016  Nobuyoshi Nakada  <nobu@ruby-lang.org>
 
 	* compile.c (append_compile_error): use rb_syntax_error_append.
diff --git a/error.c b/error.c
index 89858719c1..214d12df5d 100644
--- a/error.c
+++ b/error.c
@@ -1361,6 +1361,25 @@ rb_invalid_str(const char *str, const char *type)
     rb_raise(rb_eArgError, "invalid value for %s: %+"PRIsVALUE, type, s);
 }
 
+/*
+ * call-seq:
+ *   SyntaxError.new([msg])  -> syntax_error
+ *
+ * Construct a SyntaxError exception.
+ */
+
+static VALUE
+syntax_error_initialize(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE self)
+{
+    VALUE mesg;
+    if (argc == 0) {
+	mesg = rb_fstring_cstr("compile error");
+	argc = 1;
+	argv = &mesg;
+    }
+    return rb_call_super(argc, argv);
+}
+
 /*
  *  Document-module: Errno
  *
@@ -1960,6 +1979,7 @@ Init_Exception(void)
 
     rb_eScriptError = rb_define_class("ScriptError", rb_eException);
     rb_eSyntaxError = rb_define_class("SyntaxError", rb_eScriptError);
+    rb_define_method(rb_eSyntaxError, "initialize", syntax_error_initialize, -1);
 
     rb_eLoadError   = rb_define_class("LoadError", rb_eScriptError);
     /* the path failed to load */
diff --git a/parse.y b/parse.y
index 56f4d837c5..e3facb73c8 100644
--- a/parse.y
+++ b/parse.y
@@ -5551,8 +5551,7 @@ yycompile0(VALUE arg)
     if (parser->error_p) {
 	VALUE mesg = parser->error_buffer;
 	if (!mesg) {
-	    mesg = rb_fstring_cstr("compile error");
-	    mesg = rb_exc_new_str(rb_eSyntaxError, mesg);
+	    mesg = rb_class_new_instance(0, 0, rb_eSyntaxError);
 	}
 	rb_set_errinfo(mesg);
 	return 0;