diff --git a/src/misc2.c b/src/misc2.c
index 4c05a8c..20ee170 100644
--- a/src/misc2.c
+++ b/src/misc2.c
@@ -1012,8 +1012,12 @@
     {
 	/* Don't hide this message */
 	emsg_silent = 0;
-	EMSGN(_("E342: Out of memory!  (allocating %lu bytes)"), size);
+
+	/* Must come first to avoid coming back here when printing the error
+	 * message fails, e.g. when setting v:errmsg. */
 	did_outofmem_msg = TRUE;
+
+	EMSGN(_("E342: Out of memory!  (allocating %lu bytes)"), size);
     }
 }