diff --git a/Sources/_StringProcessing/LiteralPrinter.swift b/Sources/_StringProcessing/LiteralPrinter.swift
index 0e5b448b..0b0037ec 100644
--- a/Sources/_StringProcessing/LiteralPrinter.swift
+++ b/Sources/_StringProcessing/LiteralPrinter.swift
@@ -389,7 +389,7 @@ extension LiteralPrinter {
   }
   
   func prepareQuotedLiteral(_ literal: String) -> String {
-    if options.usesExtendedWhitespace || literal.containsRegexMetaCharacters {
+    if options.usesExtendedWhitespace {
       return #"\Q\#(literal)\E"#
     } else {
       return literal.escapingConfusableCharacters()
@@ -474,8 +474,12 @@ extension String {
   func escapingConfusableCharacters() -> String {
     reduce(into: "") { result, ch in
       for scalar in ch.unicodeScalars {
-        if scalar.isPrintableASCII {
-          result.append(Character(scalar))
+        let ch = Character(scalar)
+        if ch.isRegexMetaCharacter {
+          result.append("\\")
+          result.append(ch)
+        } else if scalar.isPrintableASCII {
+          result.append(ch)
         } else {
           result.append(scalar.escapedString)
         }
diff --git a/Tests/RegexTests/LiteralPrinterTests.swift b/Tests/RegexTests/LiteralPrinterTests.swift
index 69f273fd..2b109b32 100644
--- a/Tests/RegexTests/LiteralPrinterTests.swift
+++ b/Tests/RegexTests/LiteralPrinterTests.swift
@@ -40,6 +40,12 @@ extension RegexTests {
     XCTAssertEqual("\(printableRegex)", regexString)
   }
   
+  func testLiteral169973074() throws {
+    let regexString = #"^id\-\d+"#
+    let regex = try Regex(regexString)
+    _literalTest(regex, expected: regexString)
+  }
+  
   func testUnicodeEscapes() throws {
     let regex0 = #/[a]\u0301/#
     _literalTest(regex0, expected: #"[a]\u0301"#)