diff --git a/AUTHORS.txt b/AUTHORS.txt
index 70a97e8c3..0856478f2 100644
--- a/AUTHORS.txt
+++ b/AUTHORS.txt
@@ -210,4 +210,5 @@ S. Andrew Sheppard <andrew@wq.io>
 Roman Reiß <me@silverwind.io>
 Benjy Cui <benjytrys@gmail.com>
 Rodrigo Rosenfeld Rosas <rr.rosas@gmail.com>
+John Hoven <hovenj@gmail.com>
 
diff --git a/src/attributes/val.js b/src/attributes/val.js
index b13641b28..4a3b0e5c1 100644
--- a/src/attributes/val.js
+++ b/src/attributes/val.js
@@ -74,7 +74,9 @@ jQuery.extend({
 				var val = jQuery.find.attr( elem, "value" );
 				return val != null ?
 					val :
-					jQuery.text( elem );
+					// Support: IE10-11+
+					// option.text throws exceptions (#14686, #14858)
+					jQuery.trim( jQuery.text( elem ) );
 			}
 		},
 		select: {
diff --git a/test/unit/attributes.js b/test/unit/attributes.js
index 32fd7b958..2ab583caa 100644
--- a/test/unit/attributes.js
+++ b/test/unit/attributes.js
@@ -1462,3 +1462,16 @@ test( "should not throw at $(option).val() (#14686)", 1, function() {
 		ok( false );
 	}
 });
+
+test( "Insignificant white space returned for $(option).val() (#14858)", function() {
+	expect ( 3 );
+
+	var val = jQuery( "<option></option>" ).val();
+	equal( val.length, 0, "Empty option should have no value" );
+
+	val = jQuery( "<option>  </option>" ).val();
+	equal( val.length, 0, "insignificant white-space returned for value" );
+
+	val = jQuery( "<option>  test  </option>" ).val();
+	equal( val.length, 4, "insignificant white-space returned for value" );
+});