倒
dào · HSK 2
to fall; to collapse; to lie horizontally; to fail; to go bankrupt
🙃 倒 = upside-down; 'actually/contrary to expectation' sense from inverted outcome
Core meaning is to invert or topple. The 'actually' sense comes from a reversal — what you expected vs what happened. Same character in 倒是 (dàoshi), marking a contrary-to-expectation tone.
倒 — person radical 亻 + 到 (to arrive)
倒 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the person radical 亻 gives meaning (an action done by/to a person), while 到 supplies the sound 'dào'. Originally meaning 'to fall over' (a person toppling), it extended to 'invert, upside down, pour out', as when something falls and spills.