diff --git a/Makefile.in b/Makefile.in
index 488f4c4ef45..b47e88f6970 100644
--- a/Makefile.in
+++ b/Makefile.in
@@ -421,9 +421,9 @@ advice-on-failure:
 
 sanity-check:
 	@[ -f .no-advice-on-failure ] && exit 0; true
-	@v=$$(src/emacs${EXEEXT} --batch --eval \
+	@v=`src/emacs${EXEEXT} --batch --eval \
 	  '(progn (defun f (n) (if (= 0 n) 1 (* n (f (- n 1))))) (princ (f 10)))' \
-	  2> /dev/null); \
+	  2> /dev/null`; \
 	[ "X$$v" = "X3628800" ] && exit 0; \
 	echo >&2 '***'; \
 	echo >&2 '*** '"\"make ${make-target}\" succeeded, but Emacs is not functional."; \
@@ -1309,7 +1309,7 @@ PREFERRED_BRANCH = emacs-28
 preferred-branch-is-current:
 	git branch | grep -q '^\* $(PREFERRED_BRANCH)$$'
 unchanged-history-files:
-	x=$$(git diff-files --name-only $(CHANGELOG_N) $(emacslog)) && \
+	x=`git diff-files --name-only $(CHANGELOG_N) $(emacslog)` && \
 	  test -z "$$x"
 
 # Regular expression that matches the newest commit covered by a ChangeLog.
diff --git a/lisp/Makefile.in b/lisp/Makefile.in
index c90237615c6..fbe502cec6d 100644
--- a/lisp/Makefile.in
+++ b/lisp/Makefile.in
@@ -490,8 +490,8 @@ check-declare:
 ## This finds a lot of duplicates between foo.el and obsolete/foo.el.
 check-defun-dups:
 	sed -n -e '/^(defun /s/\(.\)(.*/\1/p' \
-	  $$(find . -name '*.el' ! -name '.*' -print | \
-	  grep -Ev '(loaddefs|ldefs-boot)\.el|obsolete') | sort | uniq -d
+	  `find . -name '*.el' ! -name '.*' -print | \
+	  grep -Ev '(loaddefs|ldefs-boot)\.el|obsolete'` | sort | uniq -d
 
 # Dependencies
 
diff --git a/lisp/gnus/nntp.el b/lisp/gnus/nntp.el
index 20c176f2269..a36bce2dbfa 100644
--- a/lisp/gnus/nntp.el
+++ b/lisp/gnus/nntp.el
@@ -643,8 +643,7 @@ connection timeouts (which may be several minutes) or
 `nntp-with-open-group', opens a new connection then re-issues the NNTP
 command whose response triggered the error."
   (declare (indent 2) (debug (form form [&optional symbolp] def-body)))
-  (when (and (listp connectionless)
-	     (not (eq connectionless nil)))
+  (when (consp connectionless)
     (setq forms (cons connectionless forms)
 	  connectionless nil))
   `(nntp-with-open-group-function ,group ,server ,connectionless