diff --git a/lib/ChangeLog b/lib/ChangeLog
index c890173c2e..d5a0434d32 100644
--- a/lib/ChangeLog
+++ b/lib/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2005-12-16  Georg Baum  <Georg.Baum@post.rwth-aachen.de>
+
+	* symbols: avoid use of symbol font if cmsy is available.
+	Saves 3 seconds in initMath() for me (qt, ~20.000 fonts)
+
 2005-12-12  Jean-Marc Lasgouttes  <lasgouttes@lyx.org>
 
 	* bind/sciword.bind: include math.bind, not maths.bind.
diff --git a/lib/symbols b/lib/symbols
index ab80ff28d1..175a26d916 100644
--- a/lib/symbols
+++ b/lib/symbols
@@ -811,16 +811,16 @@ iffont msb
 endif
 \def\mathcircumflex{\mbox{\^{}}}
 
-textdegree         lyxsymbol             176 0 mathord  x
-
 iffont cmsy
 # The \sim is placed too high...
 \def\cong{\stackrel{_\sim}{=}}
 lyxsurd               cmsy        112 0 mathord  x
 \def\surd{^\lyxsurd}
+\def\textdegree{\kern-1mu^{\circ}\kern-4mu}
 else
 cong               lyxsymbol             64  0 mathrel  x
 surd               lyxsymbol             214 0 mathord  x
+textdegree         lyxsymbol             176 0 mathord  x
 endif
                          
 #"{\hat{}}