The building blocks of English

Affixes

vago-

The vagus nerve.

Latin vagus, wandering, uncertain.

The vagus nerve is heavily branched and connects the brain with the heart, lungs, and stomach and to other upper digestive organs. The most common term is vagotomy, a surgical operation in which one or more branches of the vagus nerve are cut, typically to reduce gastric secretion in treating peptic ulcers; a person or animal subjected to this has been vagotomized. Something vagolytic acts to disrupt or impede the action of the vagus nerve.