* help-fns.el (variable-at-point):

As a last resort try striping non-word prefixes and suffixes.

1 files changed, 7 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/lisp/help-fns.el b/lisp/help-fns.el
index c06a7b1ee73..125b18614a2 100644
--- a/lisp/help-fns.el
+++ b/lisp/help-fns.el
@@ -478,8 +478,13 @@ Return 0 if there is no such symbol."
                 (and (symbolp obj) (boundp obj) obj))))
         (error nil))
       (let* ((str (find-tag-default))
-             (obj (if str (intern str))))
-        (and (symbolp obj) (boundp obj) obj))
+             (sym (if str (intern-soft str))))
+        (if (and sym (boundp sym))
+            sym
+          (save-match-data
+            (when (and str (string-match "\\`\\W*\\(.*?\\)\\W*\\'" str))
+              (setq sym (intern-soft (match-string 1 str)))
+              (and (boundp sym) sym)))))
       0))
 
 ;;;###autoload