diff --git a/src/shared/proparser/qmakebuiltins.cpp b/src/shared/proparser/qmakebuiltins.cpp
index 12cc2ffd9c9..d51b476d8d3 100644
--- a/src/shared/proparser/qmakebuiltins.cpp
+++ b/src/shared/proparser/qmakebuiltins.cpp
@@ -508,7 +508,7 @@ ProStringList QMakeEvaluator::evaluateBuiltinExpand(
             QString tmp = args.at(0).toQString(m_tmp1);
             for (int i = 1; i < args.count(); ++i)
                 tmp = tmp.arg(args.at(i).toQString(m_tmp2));
-            ret << ProString(tmp);
+            ret << (tmp.isSharedWith(m_tmp1) ? args.at(0) : ProString(tmp).setSource(args.at(0)));
         }
         break;
     case E_FORMAT_NUMBER: