diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 8a68571a..ffb5abdb 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 25/4/15 started 8.0.1
 - fix some compiler warnings 
+- work around a glib bug that can cause segv under load
 
 11/2/15 started 8.0
 - remove old doc stuff, lots of doc improvements
diff --git a/libvips/iofuncs/init.c b/libvips/iofuncs/init.c
index ddc785c5..7f760d5e 100644
--- a/libvips/iofuncs/init.c
+++ b/libvips/iofuncs/init.c
@@ -277,6 +277,12 @@ vips_init( const char *argv0 )
 		g_thread_init( NULL );
 #endif 
 
+	/* This does an unsynchronised static hash table init on first call --
+	 * we have to make sure we do this single-threaded. See: 
+	 * https://github.com/openslide/openslide/issues/161
+	 */
+	(void) g_get_language_names(); 
+
 	if( !vips__global_lock )
 		vips__global_lock = vips_g_mutex_new();