Steppe
/stɛp/noun
A vast treeless plain, especially in Eurasia.
Did you know?English steppe was borrowed through French from Russian step', a word tied to the great grasslands of eastern Europe and Asia, where entire cultures of horse-riding, migration, and conquest moved like living weather.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*stebʰ-
“to be stiff, firm, or compact”
Proto-Slavic
PSl
*stepь
“a marshy place or steppe-like plain”
Russian
ru
степь (step')
“a vast treeless grassland”
19th Century
French
steppe
“a Eurasian grassland or plain”
Modern English
English
steppe
“a vast treeless plain, especially in Eurasia”