diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 888aa97a0..596134f3c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -112,6 +112,11 @@ jobs:
         brew install lz4 || brew upgrade lz4
         brew install xxhash || brew upgrade xxhash
         brew install openssl@3.0 || brew upgrade openssl@3.0
+        # the runner's unresolvable .local hostname takes macOS ~35s to give up on,
+        # which borg pays per spawned process (import-time fqdn) - hours of test time,
+        # see #9470. .local is mDNS territory, an /etc/hosts entry alone does not help.
+        sudo scutil --set HostName borg-ci-mac
+        echo "127.0.0.1 borg-ci-mac" | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts
 
     - name: Install Python requirements
       run: |