diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index c482848fdf..e15afd2ff4 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -268,10 +268,18 @@ AM_V_GUILEC = $(AM_V_GUILEC_$(V))
 AM_V_GUILEC_ = $(AM_V_GUILEC_$(AM_DEFAULT_VERBOSITY))
 AM_V_GUILEC_0 = @echo "  GUILEC" $@;
 
+# Unset 'GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH' altogether while compiling.  Otherwise, if
+# $GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH contains $(moduledir), we may find .go files in
+# there that are newer than the local .scm files (for instance because the
+# user ran 'make install' recently).  When that happens, we end up loading
+# those previously-installed .go files, which may be stale, thereby breaking
+# the whole thing.
+#
 # XXX: Use the C locale for when Guile lacks
 # <http://git.sv.gnu.org/cgit/guile.git/commit/?h=stable-2.0&id=e2c6bf3866d1186c60bacfbd4fe5037087ee5e3f>.
 .scm.go:
 	$(AM_V_GUILEC)$(MKDIR_P) `dirname "$@"` ;			\
+	unset GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH ;				\
 	LC_ALL=C							\
 	$(top_builddir)/pre-inst-env					\
 	$(GUILD) compile -L "$(top_builddir)" -L "$(top_srcdir)"	\