Morlachs (Croatian and , ) was an exonym used for a rural community in the Lika and Dalmatian hinterlands. The term was initially used for a Vlach pastoralist community in the mountains of Croatia and the Republic of Venice in the second half of the 14th until the early 16th century. Later, when the community straddled the Venetian–Ottoman border in the 17th century, for Slavic-speaking, mainly Eastern Orthodox, and to a lesser degree Roman Catholic people. The exonym lost its use by the end of the 18th century, and came to be viewed of as derogatory. With the nation-building in the 19th century, the population of the Dalmatian hinterlands espoused either a Serb or Croat ethnicity.