diff --git a/sphinx/texinputs/sphinx.sty b/sphinx/texinputs/sphinx.sty
index 7e8421aed..5d9adb5bb 100644
--- a/sphinx/texinputs/sphinx.sty
+++ b/sphinx/texinputs/sphinx.sty
@@ -1881,10 +1881,9 @@
     \let\sphinxtermref  \@firstofone
 }}
 
-% For curly braces and vertical bar inside \index macro
+% For curly braces inside \index macro
 \def\sphinxleftcurlybrace{\{}
 \def\sphinxrightcurlybrace{\}}
-\def\sphinxverticalbar{|}
 
 % Declare Unicode characters used by linux tree command to pdflatex utf8/utf8x
 \def\spx@bd#1#2{%
diff --git a/sphinx/texinputs/sphinx.xdy b/sphinx/texinputs/sphinx.xdy
index 0efbdef2f..1c0794cd9 100644
--- a/sphinx/texinputs/sphinx.xdy
+++ b/sphinx/texinputs/sphinx.xdy
@@ -109,7 +109,6 @@
 
 (merge-rule "\sphinxleftcurlybrace{}" "{" :string)
 (merge-rule "\sphinxrightcurlybrace{}" "}" :string)
-(merge-rule "\sphinxverticalbar{}" "|" :string)
 (merge-rule "\_" "_" :string)
 (merge-rule "{[}" "[" :string)
 (merge-rule "{]}" "]" :string)
@@ -127,6 +126,7 @@
 (merge-rule "\(\rightarrow\)" "→" :string)
 (merge-rule "\(\checkmark\)" "✓" :string)
 (merge-rule "\textendash{}" "–" :string)
+(merge-rule "\textbar{}" "|" :string)
 (merge-rule "\(\sp{\text{0}}\)" "⁰" :string)
 (merge-rule "\(\sp{\text{1}}\)" "¹" :string)
 (merge-rule "\(\sp{\text{2}}\)" "²" :string)
diff --git a/sphinx/writers/latex.py b/sphinx/writers/latex.py
index 7e79385f1..7695b31a9 100644
--- a/sphinx/writers/latex.py
+++ b/sphinx/writers/latex.py
@@ -1816,7 +1816,7 @@ class LaTeXTranslator(SphinxTranslator):
             value = value.replace('"', '""')
             value = value.replace('@', '"@')
             value = value.replace('!', '"!')
-            value = value.replace('|', r'\sphinxverticalbar{}')
+            value = value.replace('|', r'\textbar{}')
             return value
 
         def style(string):