diff --git a/r/tools/nixlibs.R b/r/tools/nixlibs.R
index 9d0a2604682..f1cd6f3b324 100644
--- a/r/tools/nixlibs.R
+++ b/r/tools/nixlibs.R
@@ -565,7 +565,7 @@ build_libarrow <- function(src_dir, dst_dir) {
     # is found, it will be used by the libarrow build, and this does
     # not affect how R compiles the arrow bindings.
     CC = sub("^.*ccache", "", R_CMD_config("CC")),
-    CXX = paste(sub("^.*ccache", "", R_CMD_config("CXX17")), R_CMD_config("CXX17STD")),
+    CXX = sub("^.*ccache", "", R_CMD_config("CXX17")),
     # CXXFLAGS = R_CMD_config("CXX17FLAGS"), # We don't want the same debug symbols
     LDFLAGS = R_CMD_config("LDFLAGS"),
     N_JOBS = ncores