This connection to "standing" likely refers to the characteristic flatness and lack of trees on steppes, which creates an open and wide expanse.
Here's a simplified breakdown of the word's etymology:
* Proto-Indo-European: *steh₂- (to stand, to be firm)
* Proto-Slavic: *stepь (bare, treeless plain)
* Modern English: steppe
Therefore, the word "steppe" carries a sense of openness, flatness, and the absence of trees, reflecting the geographical features of the vast grasslands that it refers to.