53. The "Dotted Cliff" Radical: 广

When it comes to its shape, the three-stroke 广 radical is quite straightforward. Having no variants, 广 always looks the same. 

This radical is on duty in 17 Joyo kanji, including these common ones:

広 (114: wide)
店 (178: shop)
度 (356: degrees)
府 (575: prefecture)
座 (870: seat)

The "Dotted Cliff" Radical Versus Similar Radicals

In English, our radical is called the "dotted cliff" radical or the "trailing ma" radical, and in Japanese it's まだれ (which we'll use) or てんいちだれ. These four names make no sense in isolation. To understand them, we need to examine other radicals.

Our radical never actually means "cliff" in any kanji. Instead, the English name alludes to this look-alike radical, which really does symbolize "cliff":

厂 (radical 27: cliff), read as がんだれ (雁垂れ)

Whereas 厂 has no dot on top, 广 does, so our radical is a "dotted cliff."

The non-Joyo 雁 (ガン) means "wild goose" and includes a 厂, so 雁 is in that radical name as a prime example of the 厂 radical.

The 垂 (だれ: to sag) refers to the position of the radical. As I explain in Radical Terms (see "Radical Positions" and look at the last section), 垂 enclosures go down the lower left and across the top of a kanji.

That's true of 广, so we see だれ in both of its Japanese names, まだれ and てんいちだれ.

The ま in まだれ comes from 麻 (マ), which includes 广 in a sense. Some people therefore refer to our radical as a "trailing ma." Unlike 雁, though, 麻 doesn't truly feature the 广 radical because 麻 itself is a radical:

麻 (radical 200: hemp), read not as ま but primarily as あさ

The second Japanese name of 广 is てんいちだれ, which refers to this radical:

亠 (radical 8: lid), sometimes read as てんいち

And to understand てんいち, we need to look to two more radicals! I'm talking about these:

丶 (radical 3: dot), read as てん

一 (radical 1: one), read as いち

Radical 8 looks like a combination of the two, so it goes by てんいち. And to bring things back around to 广, we can now see why it's called てんいちだれ, "trailing radical 8."

We find a similar shape with this radical:

疒 (radical 104: sickness), read as やまいだれ

However, that radical doesn't affect the nomenclature of ours, so we don't need to think about it too hard!

The Buildings in Certain Kanji

Although 广 doesn't represent any kind of cliff, it does have meaning. This radical symbolizes a "building," sometimes a large one, as you can see in various etymologies from Henshall:

庫 (275: storage space)

This character combines "large building" with "vehicle" (車). Some scholars say that 庫 once literally represented a "large building for housing vehicles," especially war chariots. Other researchers see 車 as indicating the goods carried on a cart. In that case, 庫 represents "large building for a cartload of goods," which is to say "storehouse."

庭 (352: yard, garden; home; courtyard)

Again our radical means "large building" here, whereas 延 means "court." In this context, 延 literally means "people standing around at court." As Henshall explains (apparently referring to palaces and courts of the past), "People generally did their waiting at the palace/court in the courtyard or garden."

底 (549: bottom; basis)

Whereas 广 means "building" here, the interior of 底 means "bottom of a hill." Thus, 底 represents "building at bottom of hill," later coming to mean "bottom" or "base" in general.

序 (710: order)

This 广 stands for "building," and the 予 represents "already" or "in advance." The whole character means "that which one does in advance of (erecting) a building"—namely, laying foundations. Therefore, 序 means "the beginning" of something and by extension "(proper) order."

廃 (1687: to abolish; stop using; waste)

The 广 is "building," and the part inside means "to discharge" or "to leave," acting phonetically here to express "abandon(ed)" and "to leave." Thus, the whole character represents "abandoned building," which came to mean "abandoned" or "obsolete" in general. 

廊 (1938: corridor; gallery)

Henshall says in his newer edition that the 广 means “building” and that the 郎 (usually “male”) may act phonetically here to express “empty.” If so, 廊 represents “empty area beneath lean-to roof.” Alternatively, the 郎 might convey “surround, enclose,” producing the overall meaning “structure lower down around building to conduct formal matters.” I don’t follow, but one expert interprets this as “walls on both sides of a hall or similar building.” Henshall calls “corridor” an extended sense.