diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 20344c2ed5..479907f2a9 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -482,7 +482,9 @@ if test "x$CXXFLAGS_overridden" = "xno"; then
   AX_CHECK_COMPILE_FLAG([-Wself-assign],[NOWARN_CXXFLAGS="$NOWARN_CXXFLAGS -Wno-self-assign"],,[[$CXXFLAG_WERROR]])
   AX_CHECK_COMPILE_FLAG([-Wunused-local-typedef],[NOWARN_CXXFLAGS="$NOWARN_CXXFLAGS -Wno-unused-local-typedef"],,[[$CXXFLAG_WERROR]])
   AX_CHECK_COMPILE_FLAG([-Wimplicit-fallthrough],[NOWARN_CXXFLAGS="$NOWARN_CXXFLAGS -Wno-implicit-fallthrough"],,[[$CXXFLAG_WERROR]])
-  AX_CHECK_COMPILE_FLAG([-Wdeprecated-copy],[NOWARN_CXXFLAGS="$NOWARN_CXXFLAGS -Wno-deprecated-copy"],,[[$CXXFLAG_WERROR]])
+  if test x$suppress_external_warnings != xyes ; then
+    AX_CHECK_COMPILE_FLAG([-Wdeprecated-copy],[NOWARN_CXXFLAGS="$NOWARN_CXXFLAGS -Wno-deprecated-copy"],,[[$CXXFLAG_WERROR]])
+  fi
 fi
 
 dnl Don't allow extended (non-ASCII) symbols in identifiers. This is easier for code review.