diff --git a/src/applications/maniphest/search/ManiphestTaskFerretEngine.php b/src/applications/maniphest/search/ManiphestTaskFerretEngine.php
--- a/src/applications/maniphest/search/ManiphestTaskFerretEngine.php
+++ b/src/applications/maniphest/search/ManiphestTaskFerretEngine.php
@@ -15,4 +15,13 @@
     return new ManiphestTaskFerretField();
   }
 
+  protected function getFunctionMap() {
+    $map = parent::getFunctionMap();
+
+    $map['body']['aliases'][] = 'desc';
+    $map['body']['aliases'][] = 'description';
+
+    return $map;
+  }
+
 }
diff --git a/src/applications/search/ferret/PhabricatorFerretEngine.php b/src/applications/search/ferret/PhabricatorFerretEngine.php
--- a/src/applications/search/ferret/PhabricatorFerretEngine.php
+++ b/src/applications/search/ferret/PhabricatorFerretEngine.php
@@ -6,6 +6,65 @@
   abstract public function newDocumentObject();
   abstract public function newFieldObject();
 
+  public function getDefaultFunctionKey() {
+    return 'all';
+  }
+
+  public function getFieldForFunction($function) {
+    $function = phutil_utf8_strtolower($function);
+
+    $map = $this->getFunctionMap();
+    if (!isset($map[$function])) {
+      throw new PhutilSearchQueryCompilerSyntaxException(
+        pht(
+          'Unknown search function "%s". Supported functions are: %s.',
+          $function,
+          implode(', ', array_keys($map))));
+    }
+
+    return $map[$function]['field'];
+  }
+
+  public function getAllFunctionFields() {
+    $map = $this->getFunctionMap();
+
+    $fields = array();
+    foreach ($map as $key => $spec) {
+      $fields[] = $spec['field'];
+    }
+
+    return $fields;
+  }
+
+  protected function getFunctionMap() {
+    return array(
+      'all' => array(
+        'field' => PhabricatorSearchDocumentFieldType::FIELD_ALL,
+        'aliases' => array(
+          'any',
+        ),
+      ),
+      'title' => array(
+        'field' => PhabricatorSearchDocumentFieldType::FIELD_TITLE,
+        'aliases' => array(),
+      ),
+      'body' => array(
+        'field' => PhabricatorSearchDocumentFieldType::FIELD_BODY,
+        'aliases' => array(),
+      ),
+      'core' => array(
+        'field' => PhabricatorSearchDocumentFieldType::FIELD_CORE,
+        'aliases' => array(),
+      ),
+      'comment' => array(
+        'field' => PhabricatorSearchDocumentFieldType::FIELD_COMMENT,
+        'aliases' => array(
+          'comments',
+        ),
+      ),
+    );
+  }
+
   public function newStemmer() {
     return new PhutilSearchStemmer();
   }
diff --git a/src/infrastructure/query/policy/PhabricatorCursorPagedPolicyAwareQuery.php b/src/infrastructure/query/policy/PhabricatorCursorPagedPolicyAwareQuery.php
--- a/src/infrastructure/query/policy/PhabricatorCursorPagedPolicyAwareQuery.php
+++ b/src/infrastructure/query/policy/PhabricatorCursorPagedPolicyAwareQuery.php
@@ -1402,15 +1402,7 @@
     $this->ferretEngine = $engine;
     $this->ferretTokens = $fulltext_tokens;
 
-
-    $function_map = array(
-      'all' => PhabricatorSearchDocumentFieldType::FIELD_ALL,
-      'title' => PhabricatorSearchDocumentFieldType::FIELD_TITLE,
-      'body' => PhabricatorSearchDocumentFieldType::FIELD_BODY,
-      'core' => PhabricatorSearchDocumentFieldType::FIELD_CORE,
-    );
-
-    $current_function = 'all';
+    $current_function = $engine->getDefaultFunctionKey();
     $table_map = array();
     $idx = 1;
     foreach ($this->ferretTokens as $fulltext_token) {
@@ -1421,18 +1413,13 @@
         $function = $current_function;
       }
 
-      if (!isset($function_map[$function])) {
-        throw new PhutilSearchQueryCompilerSyntaxException(
-          pht(
-            'Unknown search function "%s".',
-            $function));
-      }
+      $raw_field = $engine->getFieldForFunction($function);
 
       if (!isset($table_map[$function])) {
         $alias = 'ftfield'.$idx++;
         $table_map[$function] = array(
           'alias' => $alias,
-          'key' => $function_map[$function],
+          'key' => $raw_field,
         );
       }