Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects (whose ancestor was Old Dutch) which were spoken and written between 1150 and 1500. There was at that time as yet no overarching standard language, but they were all mutually intelligible.

In historic literature Diets and Middle Dutch (Middelnederlands) are used interchangeably to describe this whole group of dialects from which later standard Dutch would be derived. Although already at the beginning several Middle-Dutch variations were present, the similarities between the different regional languages were much stronger than their differences, especially for written languages and various literary works of that time today are often very readable for modern Dutch speakers, Dutch being a rather conservative language. By many non-linguists Middle Dutch is often referred to as Diets.

Within Middle Dutch, five large groups can be distinguished, all believed to be mutually intelligible:^{[citation needed]}

Limburgish and Low Saxon gradated into Middle High German and Middle Low German, respectively. These two areas border directly the German language area in the narrow sense (i.e., today's Germany). The dialect continuum in this border region was even more fluid in the past than it is today.

Dutch Schultz (born Arthur Flegenheimer; August 6, 1902 – October 24, 1935) was a New York City-area Jewish American mobster of the 1920s and 1930s who made his fortune in organized crime-related activities such as bootlegging alcohol and the numbers racket. Weakened by two tax evasions trials led by prosecutor Thomas Dewey, Schultz's rackets were threatened by fellow mobster Lucky Luciano. In an effort to avert his conviction, Schultz asked the Commission for permission to kill Dewey, which they declined. After Schultz disobeyed the Commission and attempted to carry out the hit, they ordered his assassination in 1935.