diff --git a/doc/manual/local.mk b/doc/manual/local.mk
index 8899a671d..955357607 100644
--- a/doc/manual/local.mk
+++ b/doc/manual/local.mk
@@ -41,11 +41,11 @@ nix-eval = $(dummy-env) $(doc_nix) eval --experimental-features nix-command -I n
 
 $(d)/nix-env-%.1: $(d)/src/command-ref/nix-env/%.md
 	$(trace-gen) doc/manual/render-manpage.sh \
-		--unescape-dashes "$(subst nix-env-,nix-env --,$$(basename "$@" .1))" 1 $^ $^.tmp $@
+		--out-no-smarty "$(subst nix-env-,nix-env --,$$(basename "$@" .1))" 1 $^ $^.tmp $@
 
 $(d)/nix-store-%.1: $(d)/src/command-ref/nix-store/%.md
 	$(trace-gen) doc/manual/render-manpage.sh \
-		--unescape-dashes "$(subst nix-store-,nix-store --,$$(basename "$@" .1))" 1 $^ $^.tmp $@
+		--out-no-smarty "$(subst nix-store-,nix-store --,$$(basename "$@" .1))" 1 $^ $^.tmp $@
 
 
 $(d)/%.1: $(d)/src/command-ref/%.md
diff --git a/doc/manual/meson.build b/doc/manual/meson.build
index e764ba70b..02b707ff3 100644
--- a/doc/manual/meson.build
+++ b/doc/manual/meson.build
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ foreach command : nix_nested_manpages
     custom_target(
       command : [
         './render-manpage.sh',
-        '--unescape-dashes',
+        '--out-no-smarty',
         command[0] + ' --' + page,
         '1',
         '@INPUT@',
diff --git a/doc/manual/render-manpage.sh b/doc/manual/render-manpage.sh
index d89c29482..42f13911e 100755
--- a/doc/manual/render-manpage.sh
+++ b/doc/manual/render-manpage.sh
@@ -2,10 +2,10 @@
 
 set -euo pipefail
 
-unescape_dashes=
+lowdown_args=
 
-if [ "$1" = --unescape-dashes ]; then
-    unescape_dashes=yes
+if [ "$1" = --out-no-smarty ]; then
+    lowdown_args=--out-no-smarty
     shift
 fi
 
@@ -18,10 +18,5 @@ outfile="$5"
 printf "Title: %s\n\n" "$title" > "$tmpfile"
 cat "$infile" >> "$tmpfile"
 "$(dirname "$0")"/process-includes.sh "$infile" "$tmpfile"
-lowdown -sT man --nroff-nolinks -M section="$section" "$tmpfile" -o "$outfile"
-if [ -n "$unescape_dashes" ]; then
-    # fix up `lowdown`'s automatic escaping of `--`
-    # https://github.com/kristapsdz/lowdown/blob/edca6ce6d5336efb147321a43c47a698de41bb7c/entity.c#L202
-    sed -i 's/\e\[u2013\]/--/' "$outfile"
-fi
+lowdown -sT man --nroff-nolinks $lowdown_args -M section="$section" "$tmpfile" -o "$outfile"
 rm "$tmpfile"