diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 5126e0f82..72b7f9900 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -363,6 +363,10 @@ if brotli_dep.found()
   ft2_deps += [brotli_dep]
 endif
 
+if get_option('error_strings')
+  ftoption_command += ['--enable=FT_CONFIG_OPTION_ERROR_STRINGS']
+endif
+
 # We can now generate `ftoption.h`.
 ftoption_h = custom_target('ftoption.h',
   input: 'include/freetype/config/ftoption.h',
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index ce035b98d..d4aeb4a8b 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -52,4 +52,9 @@ option('zlib',
              'disabled', 'enabled' ],
   description: 'Support reading gzip-compressed font files')
 
+option('error_strings',
+  type: 'boolean',
+  value: false,
+  description: 'Enable support for meaningful error descriptions')
+
 # EOF