diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 3890fe602..411854df4 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
+# Version ?
+
+## Bug fixes
+
+* build system: fixed filtering out optimization options when compiling the
+  file `iso639_language_list.cpp` (before only numeric optimization levels
+  were filtered out and only if it wasn't the last option in the list of
+  flags). See #3105 for context.
+
+
 # Version 57.0.0 "Till The End" 2021-05-22
 
 ## New features and enhancements
diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index 8c9487436..ce564127e 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -355,7 +355,7 @@ cxx_compiler = lambda do |*args|
     # Even -O1 causes compilation time & memory usage to skyrocket,
     # possibly exponentially, with the number of entries to
     # emplace_back() into the vector.
-    flags.gsub!(%r{ -O\d+ }, ' -O0 ')
+    flags.gsub!(%r{(^| )-O[^ ]*}, ' -O0')
   end
 
   args = [