diff --git a/docs/reference/glib/glib-sections.txt b/docs/reference/glib/glib-sections.txt
index 026fc3965..8f16358d8 100644
--- a/docs/reference/glib/glib-sections.txt
+++ b/docs/reference/glib/glib-sections.txt
@@ -2920,6 +2920,7 @@ g_variant_builder_open
 g_variant_builder_close
 
 <SUBSECTION>
+GVariantParseError
 G_VARIANT_PARSE_ERROR
 g_variant_parse
 g_variant_new_parsed_va
diff --git a/glib/gvariant-parser.c b/glib/gvariant-parser.c
index d237334f8..93a5dd372 100644
--- a/glib/gvariant-parser.c
+++ b/glib/gvariant-parser.c
@@ -39,6 +39,13 @@
  * are not currently defined for this domain.  See #GError for
  * information on error domains.
  **/
+/**
+ * GVariantParseError:
+ * @G_VARIANT_PARSE_ERROR_FAILED: generic error
+ *
+ * Error codes returned by parsing text-format GVariants.  Currently the
+ * parser makes no distinction between different types of error.
+ **/
 GQuark
 g_variant_parser_get_error_quark (void)
 {
diff --git a/glib/gvariant.h b/glib/gvariant.h
index 6647c4076..24d9f4029 100644
--- a/glib/gvariant.h
+++ b/glib/gvariant.h
@@ -180,7 +180,12 @@ struct _GVariantBuilder {
   gsize x[16];
 };
 
+typedef enum
+{
+  G_VARIANT_PARSE_ERROR_FAILED
+} GVariantParseError;
 #define G_VARIANT_PARSE_ERROR (g_variant_parser_get_error_quark ())
+
 GQuark                          g_variant_parser_get_error_quark        (void);
 
 GVariantBuilder *               g_variant_builder_new                   (const GVariantType   *type);