diff --git a/activesupport/CHANGELOG b/activesupport/CHANGELOG
index b15cdc9aab..004a5b00df 100644
--- a/activesupport/CHANGELOG
+++ b/activesupport/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 *SVN*
 
+* Equate Kernel.const_missing with Object.const_missing. Fixes #5988. [Nicholas Seckar]
+
 * Add ApplicationController special case to Dependencies. [Nicholas Seckar]
 
 * Don't pad remaining places with in_groups_of if specified padding value is false. [Marcel Molina Jr.]
diff --git a/activesupport/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb b/activesupport/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb
index 39244b23be..bccbd549b1 100644
--- a/activesupport/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb
+++ b/activesupport/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb
@@ -206,6 +206,15 @@ module Dependencies #:nodoc:
   # using const_missing.
   def load_missing_constant(from_mod, const_name)
     log_call from_mod, const_name
+    if from_mod == Kernel
+      if ::Object.const_defined?(const_name)
+        log "Returning Object::#{const_name} for Kernel::#{const_name}"
+        return ::Object.const_get(const_name)
+      else
+        log "Substituting Object for Kernel"
+        from_mod = Object
+      end
+    end
     
     # If we have an anonymous module, all we can do is attempt to load from Object.
     from_mod = Object if from_mod.name.empty?
diff --git a/activesupport/test/dependencies_test.rb b/activesupport/test/dependencies_test.rb
index 9c5ee0146a..c80e35c5f6 100644
--- a/activesupport/test/dependencies_test.rb
+++ b/activesupport/test/dependencies_test.rb
@@ -420,4 +420,12 @@ class DependenciesTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
     end
   end
   
+  def test_const_missing_on_kernel_should_fallback_to_object
+    with_loading 'autoloading_fixtures' do
+      kls = Kernel::E
+      assert_equal "E", kls.name
+      assert_equal kls.object_id, Kernel::E.object_id
+    end
+  end
+  
 end