From Latin to Anglo-French and Middle English: The Role of the Multilingual Gloss

W. Rothwell
The Modern Language Review vol. 88 no 3 (July 1993) pp. 581-599

The original Latin words did not morph directly into French; each Latinate word changed meaning slightly as it entered the French lexicon. "This complicated semantic pattern is the result of social, not phonological factors . . . (583)".Medieval glosses might provide more accurate definitions than literary works, although glosses have been ignored by scholars.

Thirteenth century Anglo-French glosses attest that the English "enter" came from the French "entrer," but with the added meaning of to enter into a book.

French is not simply "the Latin spoken in Gaul."