diff --git a/racket/collects/racket/runtime-path.rkt b/racket/collects/racket/runtime-path.rkt
index 45818dc462..6710652419 100644
--- a/racket/collects/racket/runtime-path.rkt
+++ b/racket/collects/racket/runtime-path.rkt
@@ -172,6 +172,7 @@
                    (unless (identifier? id)
                      (raise-syntax-error
                       #f
+                      "expected an identifier"
                       #'orig-stx
                       id)))
                  ids)