diff --git a/scripts/xdg-terminal.in b/scripts/xdg-terminal.in
index 614dacf..fd958be 100644
--- a/scripts/xdg-terminal.in
+++ b/scripts/xdg-terminal.in
@@ -111,26 +111,43 @@ terminal_generic()
 {
     # if $TERM is a known non-command, use hard-coded fallbacks
     if [ x"$TERM" = x"" ] || [ x"$TERM" = x"linux" ] || [ x"$TERM" = x"vt100" ]; then
-        TERM=xterm
+        TERM=urxvt:rxvt:xterm
     fi
 
-    terminal_exec=`which $TERM 2>/dev/null`
-
-    if [ -x "$terminal_exec" ]; then
-        if [ x"$1" = x"" ]; then
-            $terminal_exec
-        else
-            $terminal_exec -e "$1"
+    # treat $TERM like $BROWSER to allow a fallback chain
+    IFS=":"
+    for terminal in $TERM; do
+        unset IFS
+        if [ x"$terminal" != x"" ]; then
+            terminal_exec=`which $terminal 2>/dev/null`
+
+            if [ -x "$terminal_exec" ]; then
+                if [ x"$1" = x"" ]; then
+                    $terminal_exec
+                else
+                    # screen and urxvt won't do their own parsing of quoted arguments
+                    if [ x"$TERM" = x"screen" ]; then
+                        # screen has an incompatible meaning for -e
+                        sh -c "exec $terminal_exec $1"
+                    elif [ x"$TERM" = x"urxvt" ] || [ x"$TERM" = x"rxvt-unicode" ] || [ x"$TERM" = x"rxvt" ]; then
+                        #TODO: Use whatever mechanism dash supports to test for
+                        #      rxvt-* to match things like rxvt-unicode-256color
+                        sh -c "exec $terminal_exec -e $1"
+                    else
+                        $terminal_exec -e "$1"
+                    fi
+                fi
+
+                if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
+                    exit_success
+                else
+                    exit_failure_operation_failed
+                fi
+            fi
         fi
+    done
 
-        if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
-            exit_success
-        else
-            exit_failure_operation_failed
-        fi
-    else
-        exit_failure_operation_impossible "configured terminal program '$TERM' not found or not executable"
-    fi
+    exit_failure_operation_impossible "configured terminal program '$TERM' not found or not executable"
 }
 
 terminal_lxde()