Saunz desbriser de hay ou de clos: clos(e) in Anglo-French and in English

English “close”, typically now in place- and field-names, is originally Anglo-Norman. The article shows how in its original sense of “(en)closed field” it is almost absent from Continental French, except in dialectal forms in Normandy and part of Brittany. The use of the word in England and in the countryside shows the influence of Anglo-Norman in rural and probably uneducated society and points to a deeper penetration of Anglo-Norman into those levels of medieval English society than has hitherto been assumed. It draws on a range of sources: medieval sources and modern dialectology from both sides of the Channel.