diff --git a/doc/nano.texi b/doc/nano.texi
index 34be2dbd..dbda4ee6 100644
--- a/doc/nano.texi
+++ b/doc/nano.texi
@@ -755,7 +755,8 @@ Use this color combination for the concise function descriptions
 in the two help lines at the bottom of the screen.
 Valid names for foreground and background color are:
 @code{white}, @code{black}, @code{blue}, @code{green},
-@code{red}, @code{cyan}, @code{yellow}, and @code{magenta}.
+@code{red}, @code{cyan}, @code{yellow}, @code{magenta}, and @code{normal}
+--- where @code{normal} means the default foreground or background color.
 The name of the foreground color may be prefixed with @code{bright}.
 And either @var{fgcolor} or ,@var{bgcolor} may be left out.
 
diff --git a/doc/nanorc.5 b/doc/nanorc.5
index 4f72395d..b2b2fbcb 100644
--- a/doc/nanorc.5
+++ b/doc/nanorc.5
@@ -264,7 +264,9 @@ Save automatically on exit, don't prompt.
 .B set titlecolor \fIfgcolor\fR,\fIbgcolor\fR
 Specify the color combination to use for the title bar.
 Valid names for the foreground and background colors are:
-.BR white ", " black ", " blue ", " green ", " red ", " cyan ", " yellow ",  and " magenta .
+.BR white ", " black ", " blue ", " green ", " red ", "
+.BR cyan ", " yellow ", " magenta ", and " normal
+-- where \fBnormal\fR means the default foreground or background color.
 The name of the foreground color may be prefixed with \fBbright\fR.
 And either "\fIfgcolor\fR" or ",\fIbgcolor\fR" may be left out.
 .TP
diff --git a/syntax/nanorc.nanorc b/syntax/nanorc.nanorc
index ab0372d5..f71088cc 100644
--- a/syntax/nanorc.nanorc
+++ b/syntax/nanorc.nanorc
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ icolor brightred "^[[:space:]]*((un)?(bind|set)|include|syntax|header|magic|comm
 
 # Keywords
 icolor brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*(set|unset)[[:space:]]+(allow_insecure_backup|atblanks|autoindent|backup|backwards|boldtext|casesensitive|constantshow|cutfromcursor|fill[[:space:]]+-?[[:digit:]]+|historylog|linenumbers|locking|morespace|mouse|multibuffer|noconvert|nohelp|nopauses|nonewlines|nowrap|positionlog|preserve|quickblank|quiet|rebinddelete|rebindkeypad|regexp|showcursor|smarthome|smooth|softwrap|suspend|tabsize[[:space:]]+[1-9][0-9]*|tabstospaces|tempfile|trimblanks|unix|view|wordbounds)\>"
-icolor yellow "^[[:space:]]*set[[:space:]]+((error|function|key|number|selected|status|title)color)[[:space:]]+(bright)?(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan)?(,(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan))?\>"
+icolor yellow "^[[:space:]]*set[[:space:]]+((error|function|key|number|selected|status|title)color)[[:space:]]+(bright)?(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan|normal)?(,(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan|normal))?\>"
 icolor brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*set[[:space:]]+(backupdir|brackets|errorcolor|functioncolor|keycolor|matchbrackets|numbercolor|operatingdir|punct|quotestr|selectedcolor|speller|statuscolor|titlecolor|whitespace|wordchars)[[:space:]]+"
 icolor brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*bind[[:space:]]+((\^([[:alpha:]]|[]0-9\^_]|Space)|M-([[:alpha:]]|[]!"#$%&'()*+,./0-9:;<=>?@\^_`{|}~-]|Space))|F([1-9]|1[0-6])|Ins|Del)[[:space:]]+([[:alpha:]]+|".*")[[:space:]]+(all|main|search|replace(with)?|gotoline|writeout|insert|ext(ernal)?cmd|help|spell|linter|browser|whereisfile|gotodir)([[:space:]]+#|[[:space:]]*$)"
 icolor brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*unbind[[:space:]]+((\^([[:alpha:]]|[]0-9\^_]|Space)|M-([[:alpha:]]|[]!"#$%&'()*+,./0-9:;<=>?@\^_`{|}~-]|Space))|F([1-9]|1[0-6])|Ins|Del)[[:space:]]+(all|main|search|replace(with)?|gotoline|writeout|insert|ext(ernal)?cmd|help|spell|linter|browser|whereisfile|gotodir)([[:space:]]+#|[[:space:]]*$)"
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ icolor green "^[[:space:]]*((un)?(bind|set)|include|syntax|header|magic|comment|
 color brightmagenta "".+"([[:space:]]|$)"
 
 # Colors
-icolor yellow "^[[:space:]]*i?color[[:space:]]*(bright)?(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan)?(,(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan))?\>"
+icolor yellow "^[[:space:]]*i?color[[:space:]]*(bright)?(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan|normal)?(,(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan|normal))?\>"
 icolor magenta "^[[:space:]]*i?color\>" "\<(start|end)="
 
 # Comments