a. [a. F. érectile, f. L. ērect-: see ERECT v.] Capable of being erected or set upright.
1834. McMurtrie, Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 155. Chauna…. Chaïa of Paraguay … whose occiput is ornamented with a circle of erectile feathers.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t., i. 7. The men of genius that I fancy most have erectile heads like the cobra-di-capello.
1869. Gillmore, Reptiles & Birds, ii. 78. Viperine Snakes … have a long, perforated, erectile fang on the maxillary bone.
b. Erectile tissue: a kind of tissue found in various parts of animals, capable of being distended under excitement, and consequently of becoming rigid; also, a similar tissue in vegetables.
1830. R. Knox, Béclard’s Anat., 188. The erectile tissue is of very large dimensions in the organs of copulation.
1861. H. Macmillan, Footnotes fr. Page Nature, 200. An elongation of the erectile tissue of the plant.
1874. Van Buren, Dis. Genit. Org., 2. The Corpus Spongiosum Urethræ is also composed of erectile tissue.
Hence Erectility, the quality of being erectile or capable of erection.
1860. Worcester cites Dr. Dix; in mod. Dicts.
