diff --git a/src/selector/selector.js b/src/selector/selector.js
index 5f6f87b0..04b68d3e 100644
--- a/src/selector/selector.js
+++ b/src/selector/selector.js
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ jQuery.extend({
 
 		// Match: :even, :last-chlid, #id, .class
 		new RegExp("^([:.#]*)(" + 
-			( jQuery.chars = "(?:[\\w\u0128-\uFFFF*_-]|\\\\.)" ) + "+)")
+			( jQuery.chars = jQuery.browser.safari && jQuery.browser.version < "3.0.0" ? "\\w" : "(?:[\\w\u0128-\uFFFF*_-]|\\\\.)" ) + "+)")
 	],
 
 	multiFilter: function( expr, elems, not ) {