diff --git a/Onboard/SpellChecker.py b/Onboard/SpellChecker.py
index 6a92757..46e755e 100644
--- a/Onboard/SpellChecker.py
+++ b/Onboard/SpellChecker.py
@@ -506,6 +506,10 @@ class hunspell(SCBackend):
         if dicpath:
             paths.extend(dicpath.split(pathsep))
 
+        datadirs = os.getenv("XDG_DATA_DIRS")
+        if datadirs:
+            paths.extend(map(lambda datadir: os.path.join(datadir, 'hunspell'), datadirs.split(pathsep)))
+
         paths.extend(LIBDIRS)
 
         home = os.getenv("HOME")
@@ -723,4 +727,3 @@ class aspell_cmd(SCBackend):
             _logger.error(_format("Failed to execute '{}', {}", \
                             " ".join(args), e))
         return [id for id in dict_ids if id]
-