diff --git a/include/qemu-common.h b/include/qemu-common.h
index af769f5ad2..7f18b8e1f9 100644
--- a/include/qemu-common.h
+++ b/include/qemu-common.h
@@ -448,12 +448,18 @@ void hexdump(const char *buf, FILE *fp, const char *prefix, size_t size);
 /* vector definitions */
 #ifdef __ALTIVEC__
 #include <altivec.h>
-#define VECTYPE        vector unsigned char
+/* The altivec.h header says we're allowed to undef these for
+ * C++ compatibility.  Here we don't care about C++, but we
+ * undef them anyway to avoid namespace pollution.
+ */
+#undef vector
+#undef pixel
+#undef bool
+#define VECTYPE        __vector unsigned char
 #define SPLAT(p)       vec_splat(vec_ld(0, p), 0)
 #define ALL_EQ(v1, v2) vec_all_eq(v1, v2)
 /* altivec.h may redefine the bool macro as vector type.
  * Reset it to POSIX semantics. */
-#undef bool
 #define bool _Bool
 #elif defined __SSE2__
 #include <emmintrin.h>