He is most well known as a scholar of paremiology, the study of proverbs, Alan Dundes labeling him "Magister Proverbium, paremiologist without peer".

His most complete work in this area is his 2009 International Bibliography of Paremiology and Phraseology, published in two volumes.

From 1984 through 2021 he was the editor of Proverbium: Yearbook of International Proverb Scholarship, an annual journal published by the University of Vermont.

[4] The term became more established with the publication of Twisted Wisdom: Modern Anti-Proverbs by Mieder and Anna T.

[7] Mieder received the American Folklore Society's Lifetime Scholarly Achievement Award in 2012.