diff --git a/Lib/locale.py b/Lib/locale.py
index 75a6435430f..4441e6d4d02 100644
--- a/Lib/locale.py
+++ b/Lib/locale.py
@@ -566,7 +566,7 @@ def getpreferredencoding(do_setlocale = True):
                 oldloc = setlocale(LC_CTYPE)
                 try:
                     setlocale(LC_CTYPE, "")
-                except:
+                except Error:
                     pass
                 result = nl_langinfo(CODESET)
                 setlocale(LC_CTYPE, oldloc)