[digitailor]

That's exactly what I'm thinking, but I haven't had time to stress-test the idea or find any precedent. And remember i'm talking about a ~36kilobtye forth, not this large-sized and resource-intensive kind of x86 forth that I don't understand the reason for.

Theoretically you would have the HLL incredibleness of a lisp with the low level genius of Forth. I asked some old timers if the idea made sense and they were silent in specifics but not discouraging. Which would indicate to me they think it is a huge learning opportunity for me one way or the other. Have you done any deeper analysis?