diff --git a/etc/Makefile b/etc/Makefile
index e2ee76362b5..d6172cf4d73 100644
--- a/etc/Makefile
+++ b/etc/Makefile
@@ -21,3 +21,13 @@ unlock:
 
 relock:
 	chmod u-w $(SOURCES)
+
+# ${etcdir}/e/eterm is used by ../lisp/term.el.
+# TERMINFO systems use terminfo files compiled by the Terminfo Compiler (tic).
+# These files are binary, and depend on the version of tic, but they seem
+# to be system-independent and backwardly compatible.
+# So there should be no need to recompile the distributed binary version.
+TIC=tic
+e/eterm: e/eterm.ti
+	TERMINFO=`pwd`; export TERMINFO; $(TIC) e/eterm.ti
+