diff --git a/src/mu-cmd-find.c b/src/mu-cmd-find.c
index ad67b312..0fe9d094 100644
--- a/src/mu-cmd-find.c
+++ b/src/mu-cmd-find.c
@@ -206,6 +206,11 @@ query_params_valid (MuConfig *opts)
 		return FALSE;
 	}
 
+	if (opts->xquery) {
+		g_warning ("--xquery is obsolete; use --format=xquery instead");
+		return FALSE;
+	}
+	
 	if (format == FORMAT_LINKS && !opts->linksdir) {
 		g_warning ("missing --linksdir argument");
 		return FALSE;
diff --git a/src/mu-config.c b/src/mu-config.c
index 01462e70..37f19345 100644
--- a/src/mu-config.c
+++ b/src/mu-config.c
@@ -169,6 +169,9 @@ config_options_group_find (MuConfig *opts)
 				{"format", 'o', 0, G_OPTION_ARG_STRING, &opts->formatstr,
 				 "output format ('plain'(*), 'links', 'xml',"
 				 "'json', 'sexp', 'xquery') (plain)", NULL},
+				{"xquery", 0, 0, G_OPTION_ARG_NONE, &opts->xquery,
+				 "obsolete, use --format=xquery instead", NULL},
+				
 				{NULL, 0, 0, 0, NULL, NULL, NULL}
 		};
 
diff --git a/src/mu-config.h b/src/mu-config.h
index 65592999..2cef1b26 100644
--- a/src/mu-config.h
+++ b/src/mu-config.h
@@ -77,8 +77,8 @@ struct _MuConfig {
 										 * default */
 	
 		/* options for querying */
-		gboolean         xquery;        /* give the Xapian query
-										   instead of search
+		gboolean         xquery;        /* (obsolete) give the Xapian
+										   query instead of search
 										   results */
 		char			*fields;		/* fields to show in output */	
 		char	        *sortfield;		/* field to sort by (string) */