diff --git a/hosts b/hosts
index 7b8be39..5895889 100755
--- a/hosts
+++ b/hosts
@@ -265,7 +265,7 @@ done
 # resulting slice is treated as a quoted string and doesn't easily get coaxed
 # into a new array.
 _COMMAND_PARAMETERS=(${_COMMAND_ARGV[*]})
-unset _COMMAND_PARAMETERS[0]
+unset "_COMMAND_PARAMETERS[0]"
 
 _debug printf \
   "\${_CMD}: %s\n" \