means To guide or direct the course of something — a vehicle, a conversation, a life — by controlling which way it goes; or, as a noun, a castrated male cattle raised for beef.

from Two words sharing one spelling, both old. The verb 'steer' comes from Old English 'stieran' (to guide, direct), tied to 'steor' meaning a rudder — the original act of steering was literally working a ship's helm, and it spread outward to anything you could point in a direction. The noun 'steer' (the bovine) descends from a separate Old English word 'stēor', an ox or young bull, with cousins across the Germanic languages. The two meanings just happened to converge in sound — a coincidence the essence enjoys, since one steer gets steered toward an unfortunate fate.