diff --git a/extra/terminfo/terminfo.factor b/extra/terminfo/terminfo.factor
index d90d07a82e..88734b2fd2 100644
--- a/extra/terminfo/terminfo.factor
+++ b/extra/terminfo/terminfo.factor
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ C: <terminfo-header> terminfo-header
     boolean-bytes>> read [ 1 = ] { } map-as ;
 
 : read-shorts ( n -- seq' )
-    2 * read 2 <groups> [ le> dup 65534 >= [ drop f ] when ] map ;
+    2 * read 2 <groups> [ signed-le> dup 0 < [ drop f ] when ] map ;
 
 : align-even-bytes ( header -- )
     [ names-bytes>> ] [ boolean-bytes>> ] bi + odd?