paktong

English

Alternative forms

• packtong, pakfong, packfong, paitung, petong

Etymology

Anglicisation of Cantonese 白銅／白铜 (baak6 tung4, “white copper”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɒŋ

Noun

paktong (countable and uncountable, plural paktongs)

1. 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.
   • 1980, James Thomas Herbert Baily, The Connoisseur: an Illustrated Magazine for Collectors, volume 205, page 108:

     Chinese export metalwork consists almost entirely of three categories: silverware; pewterware; and paktong, an alloy of zinc, copper and nickel, closely resembling silver, which the Chinese also described as tutenague, and which was probably worked by white metalsmiths also making pewter.

   • 1928, The Metal industry, volume 31, page 227:

     Many German-silver paktongs were soon flourishing under a variety of trade names, […]

   • 1995, Duncan R. Hook, David R. M. Gaimster, British Museum. Dept of Scientific Research, Trade and Discovery: The Scientific Study of Artefacts from Post-Medieval Europe and Beyond, page 265:

     From the surviving descriptions it seems likely that during the later eighteenth century most paktong items were sold (in England at least) misleadingly under the name tutenag.

Synonyms

alloy of copper, nickel and zinc

• albata
• argentan
• cupronickel
• electrum
• German silver
• maillechort
• new silver
• nickel brass
• nickel silver
• tutenag
• white copper

 

Translations

alloy

• Arabic: خَارَصِين (ar) m (ḵāraṣīn), تُوتِيَاء مَعْدِنِيّ m (tūtiyāʔ maʕdiniyy), رُوح تُوتِيَاء f (rūḥ tūtiyāʔ), تُوتِيَاء مَعْدِنِيَّة f (tūtiyāʔ maʕdiniyya)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 白銅／白铜 (zh) (báitóng)

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: paktong
• French: cuivre blanc des Chinois m, toutenague (fr) f, packfung (fr) m, pacfung (fr) m, packfong (fr) m, pacfong m
• German: Paktong n, Packfong n, Packtong n, Pakfong n, chinesisches Weißkupfer n
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: 백동 (baekdong)
• Persian: خارچینی (xâr-čini)
• Swedish: nysilver (sv) n