diff --git a/apps/forth/core.fth b/apps/forth/core.fth
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5f3860f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/forth/core.fth
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+: ? @ . ;
+: +! SWAP OVER @ + SWAP ! ;
+: ALLOT HERE +! ;
+: VARIABLE CREATE 2 ALLOT ;
+: CONSTANT CREATE HERE @ ! DOES> @ ;
+: NOT IF 0 ELSE 1 THEN ;
+: = CMP NOT ;
+: < CMP 0 1 - = ;
+: > CMP 1 = ;
diff --git a/apps/forth/dict.asm b/apps/forth/dict.asm
index e555f65..219b598 100644
--- a/apps/forth/dict.asm
+++ b/apps/forth/dict.asm
@@ -663,123 +663,5 @@ RECURSE:
 	push	hl \ pop iy
 	jp	compiledWord
 
-; End of native words
-
-; ( a -- )
-; @ .
-	.db "?"
-	.fill 7
-	.dw RECURSE
-FETCHDOT:
-	.dw compiledWord
-	.dw FETCH
-	.dw DOT
-	.dw EXIT
-
-; ( n a -- )
-; SWAP OVER @ + SWAP !
-	.db "+!"
-	.fill 6
-	.dw FETCHDOT
-STOREINC:
-	.dw compiledWord
-	.dw SWAP
-	.dw OVER
-	.dw FETCH
-	.dw PLUS
-	.dw SWAP
-	.dw STORE
-	.dw EXIT
-
-; ( n -- )
-; HERE +!
-	.db "ALLOT"
-	.fill 3
-	.dw STOREINC
-ALLOT:
-	.dw compiledWord
-	.dw HERE_
-	.dw STOREINC
-	.dw EXIT
-
-; CREATE 2 ALLOT
-	.db "VARIABL"
-	.db 0
-	.dw ALLOT
-VARIABLE:
-	.dw compiledWord
-	.dw CREATE
-	.dw NUMBER
-	.dw 2
-	.dw ALLOT
-	.dw EXIT
-
-; ( n -- )
-; CREATE HERE @ ! DOES> @
-	.db "CONSTAN"
-	.db 0
-	.dw VARIABLE
-CONSTANT:
-	.dw compiledWord
-	.dw CREATE
-	.dw HERE_
-	.dw FETCH
-	.dw STORE
-	.dw DOES
-	.dw FETCH
-	.dw EXIT
-
-; TODO: find a way to express IF/THEN/ELSE in core dict more easily.
-; ( f -- f )
-; IF 0 ELSE 1 THEN
-	.db "NOT"
-	.fill 5
-	.dw CONSTANT
-NOT:
-	.dw compiledWord
-	.dw CBRANCH
-	.db 8
-	.dw NUMBER
-	.dw 0
-	.dw BRANCH
-	.db 5
-	.dw NUMBER
-	.dw 1
-	.dw EXIT
-
-; ( n1 n2 -- f )
-; CMP NOT
-	.db "="
-	.fill 7
-	.dw NOT
-EQ:
-	.dw compiledWord
-	.dw CMP
-	.dw NOT
-	.dw EXIT
-
-; ( n1 n2 -- f )
-; CMP -1 =
-	.db "<"
-	.fill 7
-	.dw EQ
-LT:
-	.dw compiledWord
-	.dw CMP
-	.dw NUMBER
-	.dw -1
-	.dw EQ
-	.dw EXIT
-
-; ( n1 n2 -- f )
-; CMP 1 =
-	.db ">"
-	.fill 7
-	.dw LT
-GT:
 LATEST:
-	.dw compiledWord
-	.dw CMP
-	.dw NUMBER
-	.dw 1
-	.dw EQ
+	.dw RECURSE
diff --git a/apps/forth/main.asm b/apps/forth/main.asm
index a793218..b3bf1e1 100644
--- a/apps/forth/main.asm
+++ b/apps/forth/main.asm
@@ -21,6 +21,10 @@
 .equ	COMPBUF		@+2
 .equ	FORTH_RAMEND	@+0x40
 
+; (HERE) usually starts at RAMEND, but in certain situations, such as in stage0,
+; (HERE) will begin at a strategic place.
+.equ	HERE_INITIAL	FORTH_RAMEND
+
 ; EXECUTION MODEL
 ; After having read a line through stdioReadLine, we want to interpret it. As
 ; a general rule, we go like this:
@@ -51,9 +55,14 @@ forthMain:
 	; we check for stack underflow.
 	push	af \ push af \ push af
 	ld	(INITIAL_SP), sp
+	; LATEST is a *indirect* label to the latest entry of the dict. See
+	; default at the bottom of dict.asm. This indirection allows us to
+	; override latest to a value set in a binary dict compiled separately,
+	; for example by the stage0 bin.
 	ld	hl, LATEST
+	call	intoHL
 	ld	(CURRENT), hl
-	ld	hl, FORTH_RAMEND
+	ld	hl, HERE_INITIAL
 	ld	(HERE), hl
 forthRdLine:
 	ld	hl, msgOk
diff --git a/emul/.gitignore b/emul/.gitignore
index c099a28..88d5e2c 100644
--- a/emul/.gitignore
+++ b/emul/.gitignore
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 /shell/shell
+/forth/stage1
 /forth/forth
 /zasm/zasm
 /zasm/avra
diff --git a/emul/Makefile b/emul/Makefile
index 3bd7dde..1ea7d1e 100644
--- a/emul/Makefile
+++ b/emul/Makefile
@@ -24,13 +24,25 @@ shell/shell-bin.h: shell/shell.bin
 shell/shell: shell/shell.c $(SHELLOBJS) shell/shell-bin.h 
 	$(CC) shell/shell.c $(SHELLOBJS) -o $@
 
-forth/forth.bin: forth/glue.asm $(ZASMBIN)
-	$(ZASMBIN) $(KERNEL) $(APPS) < forth/glue.asm | tee $@ > /dev/null
+forth/forth0.bin: forth/glue0.asm $(ZASMBIN)
+	$(ZASMBIN) $(KERNEL) $(APPS) < forth/glue0.asm | tee $@ > /dev/null
 
-forth/forth-bin.h: forth/forth.bin
-	./bin2c.sh KERNEL < forth/forth.bin | tee $@ > /dev/null
+forth/forth0-bin.h: forth/forth0.bin
+	./bin2c.sh KERNEL < forth/forth0.bin | tee $@ > /dev/null
 
-forth/forth: forth/forth.c $(OBJS) forth/forth-bin.h 
+forth/stage1: forth/stage1.c $(OBJS) forth/forth0-bin.h 
+	$(CC) forth/stage1.c $(OBJS) -o $@
+
+forth/core.bin: $(APPS)/forth/core.fth forth/stage1
+	./forth/stage1 $(APPS)/forth/core.fth | tee $@ > /dev/null
+
+forth/forth1.bin: forth/glue1.asm forth/core.bin $(ZASMBIN)
+	$(ZASMBIN) $(KERNEL) $(APPS) forth/core.bin < forth/glue1.asm | tee $@ > /dev/null
+
+forth/forth1-bin.h: forth/forth1.bin
+	./bin2c.sh KERNEL < forth/forth1.bin | tee $@ > /dev/null
+
+forth/forth: forth/forth.c $(OBJS) forth/forth1-bin.h 
 	$(CC) forth/forth.c $(OBJS) -o $@
 
 zasm/kernel-bin.h: zasm/kernel.bin
diff --git a/emul/forth/forth.c b/emul/forth/forth.c
index dd1ba9e..739f550 100644
--- a/emul/forth/forth.c
+++ b/emul/forth/forth.c
@@ -3,10 +3,10 @@
 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <termios.h>
 #include "../emul.h"
-#include "forth-bin.h"
+#include "forth1-bin.h"
 
 // in sync with glue.asm
-#define RAMSTART 0x2000
+#define RAMSTART 0x900
 #define STDIO_PORT 0x00
 
 static int running;
diff --git a/emul/forth/glue0.asm b/emul/forth/glue0.asm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f7d9591
--- /dev/null
+++ b/emul/forth/glue0.asm
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+; RAM disposition
+;
+; Because this glue code also serves stage0 which needs HERE to start right
+; after the code, we have a peculiar RAM setup here: it lives at the very end
+; of the address space, just under RS_ADDR at 0xf000
+; Warning: The offsets of native dict entries must be exactly the same between
+;          glue0.asm and glue1.asm
+.equ	RAMSTART	0xe800
+.equ	HERE		0xe700		; override, in sync with stage1.c
+.equ	CURRENT		0xe702		; override, in sync with stage1.c
+.equ	HERE_INITIAL	CODE_END	; override
+
+.inc "ascii.h"
+.equ	STDIO_PORT	0x00
+
+	jp	init
+
+.inc "core.asm"
+.inc "str.asm"
+
+.equ	STDIO_RAMSTART	RAMSTART
+.equ	STDIO_GETC	emulGetC
+.equ	STDIO_PUTC	emulPutC
+.inc "stdio.asm"
+
+.inc "lib/util.asm"
+.inc "lib/parse.asm"
+.inc "lib/ari.asm"
+.inc "lib/fmt.asm"
+.equ FORTH_RAMSTART STDIO_RAMEND
+.inc "forth/main.asm"
+.inc "forth/util.asm"
+.inc "forth/stack.asm"
+.inc "forth/dict.asm"
+
+
+init:
+	di
+	; setup stack
+	ld	sp, 0xffff
+	call	forthMain
+	halt
+
+emulGetC:
+	; Blocks until a char is returned
+	in	a, (STDIO_PORT)
+	cp	a		; ensure Z
+	ret
+
+emulPutC:
+	out	(STDIO_PORT), a
+	ret
+
+.dw	0		; placeholder used in glue1.
+CODE_END:
+.out $		; should be the same as in glue1
diff --git a/emul/forth/glue.asm b/emul/forth/glue1.asm
similarity index 59%
rename from emul/forth/glue.asm
rename to emul/forth/glue1.asm
index d46846d..2bbdc89 100644
--- a/emul/forth/glue.asm
+++ b/emul/forth/glue1.asm
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
+; Warning: The offsets of native dict entries must be exactly the same between
+;          glue0.asm and glue1.asm
+.equ	LATEST		CODE_END	; override
 .inc "ascii.h"
-.equ	RAMSTART	0x2000
 .equ	STDIO_PORT	0x00
 
 	jp	init
@@ -22,6 +24,7 @@
 .inc "forth/stack.asm"
 .inc "forth/dict.asm"
 
+
 init:
 	di
 	; setup stack
@@ -38,3 +41,10 @@ emulGetC:
 emulPutC:
 	out	(STDIO_PORT), a
 	ret
+
+.out $		; should be the same as in glue0, minus 2
+; stage0 spits, at the beginning of the binary, the address of the latest word
+; Therefore, we can set the LATEST label to here and we should be good.
+CODE_END:
+.bin "core.bin"
+RAMSTART:
diff --git a/emul/forth/stage1.c b/emul/forth/stage1.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a4c24c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/emul/forth/stage1.c
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+#include <stdint.h>
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
+#include "../emul.h"
+#include "forth0-bin.h"
+
+/* Stage 1
+
+The role of the stage 1 executable is to start from a bare Forth executable
+(stage 0) that will compile core non-native definitions into binary form and
+append this to existing bootstrap binary to form our final Forth bin.
+
+We could, if we wanted, run only with the bootstrap binary and compile core
+defs at runtime, but that would mean that those defs live in RAM. In may system,
+RAM is much more constrained than ROM, so it's worth it to give ourselves the
+trouble of compiling defs to binary.
+
+This stage 0 executable has to be layed out in a particular manner: HERE must
+directly follow executable's last byte so that we don't waste spce and also
+that wordref offsets correspond.
+*/
+
+// in sync with glue.asm
+#define RAMSTART 0x900
+#define STDIO_PORT 0x00
+// In sync with glue code. This way, we can know where HERE was when we stopped
+// running
+#define HERE 0xe700
+// We also need to know what CURRENT is so we can write our first two bytes
+#define CURRENT 0xe702
+
+static int running;
+static FILE *fp;
+
+static uint8_t iord_stdio()
+{
+    int c = getc(fp);
+    if (c == EOF) {
+        running = 0;
+    }
+    return (uint8_t)c;
+}
+
+static void iowr_stdio(uint8_t val)
+{
+    // we don't output stdout in stage0
+}
+
+int main(int argc, char *argv[])
+{
+    bool tty = false;
+    if (argc == 2) {
+        fp = fopen(argv[1], "r");
+        if (fp == NULL) {
+            fprintf(stderr, "Can't open %s\n", argv[1]);
+            return 1;
+        }
+    } else {
+        fprintf(stderr, "Usage: ./stage0 filename\n");
+        return 1;
+    }
+    Machine *m = emul_init();
+    m->ramstart = RAMSTART;
+    m->iord[STDIO_PORT] = iord_stdio;
+    m->iowr[STDIO_PORT] = iowr_stdio;
+    // initialize memory
+    for (int i=0; i<sizeof(KERNEL); i++) {
+        m->mem[i] = KERNEL[i];
+    }
+    // Run!
+    running = 1;
+
+    while (running && emul_step());
+
+    fclose(fp);
+
+    // We're done, now let's spit dict data
+    // let's start with LATEST spitting.
+    putchar(m->mem[CURRENT]);
+    putchar(m->mem[CURRENT+1]);
+    uint16_t here = m->mem[HERE] + (m->mem[HERE+1] << 8);
+    for (int i=sizeof(KERNEL); i<here; i++) {
+        putchar(m->mem[i]);
+    }
+    return 0;
+}
+