言い付ける
いいつける · iitsukeru · JLPT N2 · noun
tell
🗣️📌 言い付ける = say (言う) + attach (付ける): pin a task on someone by word
付ける means to attach or fasten, so 言い付ける is saying something that sticks to the listener as an instruction. It also means to tell on someone, as in 先生に言い付ける, to report them to the teacher.
付 — person radical 亻 + hand 寸
付 originally pictured a hand (寸) reaching out to hand something to a person (亻), depicting the act of giving or delivering. The core sense 'to hand over, deliver, pay' has remained stable since ancient bronze inscriptions. It also serves as a phonetic component in characters like 附, 符, and 府.