diff --git a/include/qemu/error-report.h b/include/qemu/error-report.h
index 00d069b20f..87532d8596 100644
--- a/include/qemu/error-report.h
+++ b/include/qemu/error-report.h
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ void error_init(const char *argv0);
     })
 
 const char *error_get_progname(void);
-extern bool enable_timestamp_msg;
+
+extern bool error_with_timestamp;
 
 #endif
diff --git a/qemu-options.hx b/qemu-options.hx
index c63e794b64..b2cb1debe6 100644
--- a/qemu-options.hx
+++ b/qemu-options.hx
@@ -4167,13 +4167,17 @@ DEF("no-kvm", 0, QEMU_OPTION_no_kvm, "", QEMU_ARCH_I386)
 
 DEF("msg", HAS_ARG, QEMU_OPTION_msg,
     "-msg timestamp[=on|off]\n"
-    "                change the format of messages\n"
-    "                on|off controls leading timestamps (default:on)\n",
+    "                control error message format\n"
+    "                timestamp=on enables timestamps (default: off)\n",
     QEMU_ARCH_ALL)
 STEXI
 @item -msg timestamp[=on|off]
 @findex -msg
-prepend a timestamp to each log message.(default:on)
+Control error message format.
+@table @option
+@item timestamp=on|off
+Prefix messages with a timestamp.  Default is off.
+@end table
 ETEXI
 
 DEF("dump-vmstate", HAS_ARG, QEMU_OPTION_dump_vmstate,
diff --git a/util/qemu-error.c b/util/qemu-error.c
index f373f3b3b0..dac7c7dc50 100644
--- a/util/qemu-error.c
+++ b/util/qemu-error.c
@@ -24,6 +24,9 @@ typedef enum {
     REPORT_TYPE_INFO,
 } report_type;
 
+/* Prepend timestamp to messages */
+bool error_with_timestamp;
+
 int error_printf(const char *fmt, ...)
 {
     va_list ap;
@@ -191,7 +194,6 @@ static void print_loc(void)
     }
 }
 
-bool enable_timestamp_msg;
 /*
  * Print a message to current monitor if we have one, else to stderr.
  * @report_type is the type of message: error, warning or informational.
@@ -204,7 +206,7 @@ static void vreport(report_type type, const char *fmt, va_list ap)
     GTimeVal tv;
     gchar *timestr;
 
-    if (enable_timestamp_msg && !cur_mon) {
+    if (error_with_timestamp && !cur_mon) {
         g_get_current_time(&tv);
         timestr = g_time_val_to_iso8601(&tv);
         error_printf("%s ", timestr);
diff --git a/vl.c b/vl.c
index 94508300c3..908a9e1d1e 100644
--- a/vl.c
+++ b/vl.c
@@ -1139,7 +1139,7 @@ static void realtime_init(void)
 
 static void configure_msg(QemuOpts *opts)
 {
-    enable_timestamp_msg = qemu_opt_get_bool(opts, "timestamp", true);
+    error_with_timestamp = qemu_opt_get_bool(opts, "timestamp", false);
 }