The story
Anglicisation of Cantonese 白銅／白铜 (baak6 tung4, “white copper”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
paktong
Today it means: An alloy of zinc, copper and nickel, closely resembling silver, of Chinese origin; any of a number of similar alloys developed in imitation of the Chinese product. Full definition →